than from any deep spiritual necessity which would have held it there so long as life lasted. Aye! there needed but a few such days and evenings and Malka turned away from Poldik as from an uncouth scare-crow, and as though she were flying from a ruined vault whose ceiling was overhung with spider webs; and she turned to Francis as to some sunny spot of earth which would free her from the dismal gloom of the other.
I cannot disguise the fact that the relation of Malka to Francis was a very dangerous one, and that I might here fall into the temptation to weave a romantic story. For threads which entwine so lightly as the inclination towards one another entertained by Malka and Francis, generally are just as lightly blown asunder; only that on one side follows merely a sentiment of vexation, on the other complete disenchantment, if not an utter dissipation of all the hopes which make a girl cling to life.
But, indeed, we have no need of any such a romance, and in the present instance it would not be true. Francis had already repeated to Malka a hundred times that they should live together as a happy couple, man and wife, and Malka, when he said it, had a hundred times pressed his hand, as if in token of her consent. And then they had said it to each other in looks and kisses, and then a time came when neither looks nor kisses were needed to express it, for it was so firmly fixed and settled
M
