'Why have you changed?' she said helplessly. 'I was so happy, and you are making me so miserable.' 'I have no pity for you,' he said, 'you are too pitiless yourself to deserve any.' 'You break my heart when you speak to me like that.' 'I should like to break it,' he replied, unmoved. She did not answer, but presently he heard her sobbing. Full of suspicion, he put out his hand and felt the tears running between her fingers. 'I have made you cry,' he said. 'Not for the first time,' she answered. She knew that he was disconcerted, shaken in his harshness, and added,-- 'I know what you think of me sometimes, Julian. I have nothing to say in my own defence. Perhaps there is only one good thing in me, but that you must promise me never to attack.' 'What is it?' 'You sound very sceptical,' she answered wistfully. 'My love for you; let us leave it at that.' 'I wonder!' he said; and again, 'I wonder!...' She moved a little closer to him, and leaned against him, so that her hair brushed his cheek. Awkwardly and absent-mindedly, he put his arms round her; he could feel her heart beating through her thin muslin shirt, and lifting her bare arm in his hand he weighed it pensively; she lay against him, allowing him to do as he pleased; physically he held her nearer, but morally he was far away. Humiliating herself, she lay silent, willing to sacrifice the pride of her body if therewith she might purchase his return. But he, awaking with a start from his brooding grievances, put her away from him. If temptation was to overcome him, it must rush him by assault; not thus, sordid and unlit.... He rose, saying,-- 'It is very late; you must go to bed; good-night.' II Panaïoannou attempted a landing before sunrise on the following day. A few stars were still visible, but the moon was paling, low in the heavens, and along the eastern horizon the sky was turning rosy and yellow above the sea. Earth, air, and water were alike bathed in purity and loveliness. Julian, hastily aroused, remembered the Islands as he had seen them from the mainland on the day of Madame Lafarge's picnic. In such beauty they were lying now, dependent on his defence.... Excited beyond measure, he dressed rapidly, and as he dressed he heard the loud clanging of the school bell summoning the men to arms; he heard the village waking, the clatter of banging doors, of wooden soles upon the cobbles, and excited voices. He rushed from his room into the passage, where he met Eve. She was very pale, and her hair was streaming round her shoulders. She clung to him. 'Oh, Julian, what is it? why are they ringing the bells? why are you dressed? where are you going?' He explained, holding her, stroking her hair.