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Close by Elza, partially behind her, I saw something small, no taller than Elza's waist. A naked thing of sleek, glistening skin. The monstrosity of a human child; a bulging head, wavering upon a neck incapable of supporting it; a thick round body; twisted, misshapen limbs. A face ... human? It made my gorge rise with its gruesome suggestion of humanity.
I did not harm this Tara, though I was sorely tempted to; and after a moment we quieted her. She was crying and laughing by turns; but when we seated her on the divan she controlled herself and fell into a sullen silence. Elza, pale and frightened at her escape, faced the woman, and waved Wolfgar and me aside. Strange little Elza!
Alone, unnoticed, they had departed from the City of Ice on a small flying platform similar to the one they had used before. The night had passed; day, with a new warmth to the sun, came again. Flying low, with Tarrano in a grim, moody silence, and Elza staring downward. The aural lights were overhead when at the last Tarrano brought the platform to rest. A thick, luxuriant forest.
To Elza he spoke commandingly, but with that deference to which every woman of birth and breeding is entitled from a man. We rose straight up and, at 18,000 feet, headed northward by a point or two west.
Tarrano was feeding sweets to Elza as though they were gay young lovers. Poor little Elza! She was frightened. Her face was a trifle pale, her lips set. But she, too, knew that we were wholly in Tarrano's power, and she made the best of the situation. Sometimes she would laugh gayly; but I could not miss the note of fear in it. The progress of our barge was slow.
"Come, we must leave here. I would not have you endangered." With a haste and roughness that belied the calm solicitude of his words, he pulled her to her feet. There was light in the pavilion now. Elza saw dimly the turmoil of struggling figures; and then she saw the scene duplicated saw it shift and sway in crazy fashion.
"Where is she?" "In the cookery, where she should be. I told her we would eat in an hour. That ought to keep her busy." Dr. Brende made an attempt at a smile. "I think we are all a little overwrought though with reason, no doubt. Sit down, Jac. Elza, come here by me. Don't look so solemn, child." He drew Elza to him, with his arm about her. I would have spoken, but his gesture checked me.
She encircled Elza's neck with her arms, leaned her head against her breast, and looked tenderly up to her with her hazel gazelle eyes. Elza bent over her and kissed her eyes and white forehead. Ulrich von Hohenberg looked at them both with a tender, ardent glance; then he averted his head to conceal the crimson glow suffusing his cheeks.
Ulrich would then come to you, and, Elza, you will tell him not to think that Lizzie Wallner was a bad girl, and that she was intent only on getting an aristocratic husband. You will tell him that my sole object was to save his life, and that I never thought of marrying him. You will tell him also that I forgave him the injury which he did me to-day, and that I shall pray to God Almighty for him.
I told her it was your will that she should be silent; and because she loves you and would comply with all your wishes, she was silent, obeyed your call, and came all alone to the altar to become your wife." "My wife! she is not my wife! The marriage is null and void, and I shall never acknowledge it." "Elza is your wife, sir, your wife before God and man.
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