"Ha! ha!" she laughed you cannot leave me. And you used not to repulse me. Think better of it. Come!"
"I do not know you!" he cried, with loathing.
But she sprang upon him, and he, weak and weary and faint, could not for long resist her.
"Mine for ever!" she murmured, in her harsh voice, as she placed her dry lips to his.
"And who are you?" gasped Antar, pale and wretched and powerless to escape.
"Ha ha! you ought to know me, Antar. You used to love me pretty well, I think. And now you can never leave me. Day and night you shall lie in my arms, and kiss me."
"But who are you?" he insisted. "I am Yourself, your foul, hideous Self!" she shreicked into his ear. And Antar swooned.
5.
"Antar is dead!" groaned Rheda.
I had returned to her. At her side
