XXXV
DELILAH
As Northcote gazed upon her, despair beat him
down like a flail. It was not for him, man of
genius as he was, to heal this outcast with his touch.
Only a perfect chastity could do that; and this was
the jewel with which he had parted two days before
to save her from the gallows. If he touched
her now, it would be as the inhabitant of her own
level. She cried for the living god, yet now he
was become a counterfeit of arid clay. She had
asked for bread, and he had only a stone to yield.
"You must go," he said, and the words seemed to thicken as they fell from his throat. "You must fly from me. I have nothing to offer you."
The woman shuddered and clasped him by the ankles, but otherwise made no sign that she had heard.
"My power is gone," he said. "I am no longer the strong and valiant one, but the poor outcast even as are you. Two days ago I flung my birth-*right away."
"Will you send me back to the charnel-house?" said the woman with a low moan.
Northcote drew up his body rigidly, erectly.
"I have no choice," were the words that were forced from between his lips.
Vein by vein the creature before him was invaded by death. She crouched lower and lower upon the
