Analyses and dithyrambs formulated the same slavery. He wished to make this woman happy, to see her eyes drawn back and her lips, by the oppression of an emotion, opened. The evocation was suddenly effected, not, it is true, under the direct visual form, but in a far away vaporous and voluptuous world. Kneeling near her, after the last evolutions of the embrace, he contemplated her. "Truly my life is transferred into this woman as under the attraction of a magnet, and truly the center of my forces is in that heart! "Those blond lashes of her blue eyes are the chains of my days, and the blond shadow of her hair is the halo of bright moons whose splendor illumines my nights." He would have proceeded at greater length, for his words were unleased, but the vision vanished. "Presage: Ah! pretty beast! ah! pretty beast!" Then he reflected again: "All this has been badly managed. I should have designed, as Calixte suggested, this woman in the pure rôle of a Beatrice exempt from carnal affairs,--but being a woman, she would not have understood: Beatrice, who lent herself to this sublime play, was a dream creature, obeying the poet and the very symbol of his thought. This one had to fall into my arms, or other arms would have snatched her. "Remain on your pedestal. It is on my knees that I wish to adore you, my hands outstretched to you, eternally. "No, I grow weary, up there. Adorer, adore nearer, adore with kisses. "Well! at least we shall have some moments of pleasant intimacy and since it is necessary to make an object of pleasure out of the object of worship, let the sacrilege be complete and the voluptuousness decisive. "Ah! I shall abandon myself to your body of illusions. Excellent and noble substance, you will be kneaded according to the most transcendental phantasies!" CHAPTER XXXV THE ADORER V.--The Visitation "Vous qui parlez d'un ton si doux En m'annoncant de bonnes choses, Ma Dame, qui donc êtes-vous? Verlaine, _Sagesse_. "Yes, beloved Guido, I am the Queen of Angels, the Archangelic Virgin, the Morning Star, the Tower of David, the Golden House, I am...." "Oh! no, you are the Novella, do not frighten me, I need all my presence of mind." "Well, whatever you wish, but I love you. Close your eyes, I am inviolate and I feel myself blush. What will you think of me? Alas! it is really true that no one has ever implored me in vain. I cannot resist love's invocations, and when I am called with faith, I open the portal of heaven, and an angel lifts me on his wings." "Adored Madonna," murmured Guido, kissing feet that were pure as the dew, "I am unworthy of your favors and see, my kisses are full of tears. Virgin of all love, my love was but a drop of water, and you have taken it in the holy lily of your heart. Be blessed for your goodness." The Novella stooped towards the prisoner and touched his face with her lips.