Their return journey was one of quiet. The lady talked little, she leant back and looked away across the blue lake, often apparently unconscious of his presence. This troubled Paul. Had he wearied her? What should he do? He was growing aware of the fact that she was not a bit like his mother, or Isabella, or any of the other women whom he knew--people whose moods he had never even speculated about--if they had any--which he doubted.
Why wouldn't she speak? Had she forgotten him? He felt chilled and saddened.
At last, as they neared a small bay where another tempting little chalet-hotel mirrored itself in the clear water, he spoke. A note in his voice--his charming young voice--as of a child in distress.
"Are--are you cross with me?"
Then she came back from her other world. "Cross with you? Foolish one! No, I am dreaming. And I forgot that you could not know yet, or understand. English Paul! who would have me make conversation and chatter commonplaces or he feels a gêne! See, I will take you where I have been into this infinite sky and air"--she let her hand fall on his arm and thrilled him--"look up at Pilatus. Do you see his head so snowy, and all the delicate shadows upon him, and his look of mystery? And those dark pines--and the great chasms, and the wild anger the giants were in when they hurled these huge rocks about? I have been with them, and you and I seem such little people, Paul. We cannot throw great rocks about--we are only two small ants in this grand world."
Paul's face was puzzled, he did not believe in giants. His mind was not accustomed yet to these flights of speech, he felt stupid and irritated with himself, and in some way humiliated. The lady leant over him, her face playfully tender.
"Great blue eyes!" she said. "So pretty, so pretty! What matter whether they can see or no?" And she touched his lids with her slender fingers.
Paul quivered in his chair.
"You know!" he gasped. "You make me mad--I----But won't you teach me to see? No one wants to be blind! Teach me to see with your eyes, lady--my lady."
"Yes, I will teach you!" she said. "Teach you a number of things. Together we will put on the hat of darkness and go down into Hades. We shall taste the apples of the Hesperides--we will rob Mercure of his sandals--and Gyges of his ring. And one day, Paul--when together we have fathomed the meaning of it all--what will happen then, enfant?"