The wanderer held his breath; and, both hands pressed against his breast, waited in a sort of agony for her to raise her head. At last she did so, but it was towards the window she looked. She even left her chair and reached far out over the red geraniums to glance into the street below. As she sat down her eyes turned to the door where the stranger stood watching. With a little cry of fear she crumpled the white linen against her and stared at him without finding a word. Impulsively Eric sprang forward, and taking her with a quick movement by both shoulders, he whirled her round to the light, peering with a hungry longing into her eyes.... All was done in a flash; the astonished girl was so taken by surprise that she had no time to defend herself against so sudden an onslaught. But hardly had he seen her eyes than he let her go again, and putting his two hands over his face, with a cry of disappointment, he turned and fled. Down the dark narrow stairs he sped, out into the bright sunlight; there he paused a moment to pick up his stick and flute, then ran as if possessed; and before long he had left the sleepy red-roofed little town far behind.... Still he ran, ran, eager to get away from the eyes which were not the eyes he wanted. IV I have come far, led by my dreams and visions. TAGORE. The moon was shining down upon an endless expanse of snow--as far as the eye could reach, snow, snow, white and dazzling, strewn with a million glittering diamonds. It had ceased snowing; the storm was over; but the wind still blew in biting blasts, forcing the wanderer to draw his cloak more closely around him, and to bend his head, as he slowly advanced over that everlasting desert of white. He walked and walked; there was no end to this frozen snow-field over which his feet had made a narrow little path that alone disturbed the shroud-like surface. And always longer and longer it grew, zigzagging beneath the quiet face of the moon. From time to time the wind blew snowflakes against him, and they beat in his face like a thousand pins, obliging him to shut his eyes not to be blinded. Each flake had another shape; there were stars and crosses, moss-like flowers and strangely shaped butterflies, all dancing in mad circles around the lonely wayfarer. Some kept their beautiful shape even when fallen to the ground, and the moon would light them up like precious jewels out of a queenly casket. The young man was the only living thing in this wilderness of ice and snow. He could not have told how he had got there; what will was driving him always onwards upon his mad search; but nothing had power to stop him, nor had fear any place in his soul. Now, even the wind died down and a hush fell over all things. The light of the moon became intenser in the growing stillness.