What power lay upon me that I could not speak ?
And she, why was she also silent ? Why did she draw
away before me dumbly, with fascinated eyes ? Was
this love ? or was it a mere brute attraction, mindless
and inevitable, like that of the magnet for the steel ?
We had never spoken, we were wholly strangers ; and
yet an influence, strong as the grasp of a giant, swept us
silently together. On my side, it filled me with im-
patience ; and yet I was sure that she was worthy ; I had
seen her books, read her verses, and thus, in a sense,
divined the soul of my mistress. But on her side, it
struck me almost cold. Of me, she knew nothing but
my bodily favour ; she was drawn to me as stones fall to
earth j the laws that rule the earth conducted her, nncon-



OLALLA. 201

sen ting, to my arms ; and I drew back at the thought of
such a bridal, and began to be jealous for myself. It was
not thus that I desired to be loTed. And then I began to
fall into a great pity for the girl herself. I thought how
sharp must be her mortification, that she, the student,
the recluse, Felipe's saintly monitress, should have thus
confessed an overweening weakness for a man with whom
she had never exchanged a word. And at the coming of
pity, all other thoughts were swallowed up ; and I
longed only to find and console and reassure her ; to tell
her how wholly her love was returned on my side, and
how her choice, even if blindly made, was not unworthy.
