THE RETURN TO ATHENS.
205
But she looked at him with dismay and undisguised terror.
"Alas! these are empty words, and the dreadful deed cannot be undone. How can a man be born again?"
Thoth looked at her, and for a moment seemed to wait for some sign of relenting, and then he said, hopelessly—
"Then there is but one course left."
He seized her hand passionately, and she tried to escape.
"Nay," he said, "fear no violence. I have always treated thee with honour and respect."
She left her hand quietly in his, and he raised it to his lips and kissed it.
"Farewell," he said; "but hereafter, when thou thinkest of me, remember that my last words were true, and that the man who loved thee was not the man who did this wrong."
