She gave me no answer. My heart fainted within me; I feared that it would stop. But in a little I dared to raise my eyes to her face. She stood in the pillar of moonlight, her eyes glistening, but with no expression on her face which could give me a clue to her thoughts, and she softly opened and shut her fan, which hung on a girdle about her waist. "How I do love you!" I cried, and I made a step towards her. "But you know that." She nodded her head. "I took good care you should," she said. I did not stop to consider the strangeness of the speech. My desire construed it without seeking help from the dictionary of thought. "Then you wished it," I cried joyfully, and I threw myself down on my knee at her feet, and buried my face in my hands. "Ilga! Ilga!" She made no movement, but replied in a low voice: "With all my heart I wished it. How else could I have brought you to the Tyrol?" I felt the tears gathering into my eyes and my throat choking. I lifted my face to hers, and, taking courage from her words, clipped my arms about her waist. She gave a little trembling cry, and plucked at my fingers. I but tightened my clasp. "Ilga!" I murmured. 'Twas the only word which came to my lips, but it summed the whole world for me then--ay, and has done ever since. "Ilga!" Again she plucked at my fingers, and for all the calmness which she had shown, I could feel her hands burning through her gloves. Then a shadow darkened for an instant across the window, the moonlight faded, and her face was lost to me. 'Twas for no longer than an instant. I looked towards the window, but Ilga bent her head down between it and me. "Tis only the branches swinging in the wind," she said softly. I rose to my feet and drew her towards me. She set her palms against my chest as if to repulse me, but she said no word, and I saw the necklace about her throat flashing and sparkling with the heave of her bosom. It seemed to me that a light step sounded without the pavilion, and I turned my head aside to listen. "Tis only the leaves blowing along the terrace," she whispered, and I looked again at her and drew her closer. For a time she resisted; then I heard her sigh, and her hand stole across my shoulder. Her head drooped forward until her hair touched my lips. I could feel her heart beating on my breast. Gently I turned her face upwards, and then with a loud clap the shutters were flung to and the room was plunged in darkness. Ilga started away from me, drawing a deep breath as for some release. I groped my way to the window. The shutters opened outwards, and I pushed against them. They were held close and fast.