After a long interval, however, she followed, and found the apartment empty. The pigmy had been liberated, and a repast had been set in the usual place. Hope again arose in Daphne’s breast, though she still feared, from the absence of her little servants, that all was not well. She was too sick at heart to eat or drink, and waited in anxious expectation. At last night fell, but there was no answer of any kind. She lay down on the couch and tried to sleep. After some hours of the deepest silence, she thought she heard a footfall near the head of the couch. She started up, and beheld Thoth two or three paces distant. CHAPTER XIII. TRANSFORMATION. Daphne’s first thought was, that the hour of her destruction had come at last. She clung to her dagger, and in the presence of actual danger her courage was restored to the full. Her face was pale, but her eyes flashed. She looked at Thoth, expecting him to utter her doom, but he stood silently with his eyes fixed on the ground, apparently in deep thought. How long they remained thus she could never tell,—whether moments or hours. Time was effaced, and she and this man were all that was left in the universe. At last Daphne broke the silence. “What is my fate? Wilt thou keep to thy first promise or thy last threat?” Then Thoth raised his eyes and filled her heart with wonder. A thrill of fearful pleasure passed through her frame as she thought she saw in his regard no trace of hatred or cruelty, but the overpowering love of a strong nature. She was not left long in suspense, for Thoth said to her, with a trembling voice— “Daphne, I love thee as never yet man loved woman. Against my will, against my belief, in a moment, love has seized me—love as strong and irrevocable as death that, too, comes in a moment.” Then he advanced towards her, and seizing her hand, kissed it passionately. He tried to embrace her, but she drew back, afraid. The change in the man was too sudden and unexpected. She knew not what to think. Delight was mingled with distrust, and she knew not which would gain the victory. His kisses inflamed her heart, but the horror of the past was too recent to be altogether forgotten. She longed to be alone, and yet, at the same time, she wished to ask Thoth a multitude of questions. She wished to know his whole nature, and as yet she was afraid to give him her finger-tip. Overpowered by the conflict of emotions, she sank down on the couch, and listened to Thoth as if in a dream. Thoth respected her diffidence, and for a time reason again seemed to take command of his nature, and he spoke calmly even of his new-born passion. The words of love which she had spoken to him, and which, at first, had made no impression, had, he related, as soon as he left her, begun to recur to him as if she were still present.