elixir of life within her, inspiring her, uplifting her.  For a space she hovered thus, still mounting, but imperceptibly, caught as it were between earth and heaven.  Then the golden glamour about her turned to a mystic haze.  Strange visions, but half comprehended, took shape and dissolved before her.  She believed that she was floating among the mountain-crests with the Infinite all about her.  The wonder of it and the rapture were beyond all utterance, beyond the grasp of human knowledge; the joy exceeded all that she had ever known.  And so by exquisite phases, she entered at last a great vastness—­a slumber-space where all things were forgotten, lost in the radiance of an unbroken peace.

She folded the wings of her enchantment with absolute contentment and slept.  She had come to a new era in her existence.  She had reached the top of the world. . . .

It was long, long after that she awoke, returning to earth with the feeling of one revisiting old haunts after half a lifetime.  She was very tired, and her head throbbed painfully, but at the back of her brain was an urgent sense of something needed, something that must be done.  She raised herself with immense effort,—­and met the eyes of Burke seated by her side.

He was watching her with a grave, unstirring attention that did not waver for an instant as she moved.  It struck her that there was a strange remoteness about him, almost as if he belonged to another world.  Or was it she—­she who had for a space overstepped the boundary and wandered awhile through the Unknown?

He spoke, and in his voice was a depth that awed her.

“Do you know me?” he said.

She gazed at him, bewildered, wondering.  “But of course I know you!  Why do you ask?  Are you—­changed in any way?”

He made an odd movement, as if the question in her wide eyes pierced him.  He did not answer her in words; only after a moment he took her hand and pushed up the sleeve as though looking for something.

She lay passive for a few seconds, watching him.  Then suddenly, blindly, she realized what was the object of his search.  She made a quick, instinctive movement to frustrate him.

His hand tightened instantly upon hers; he pointed to a tiny mark upon the inside of her arm.  “How did you get that?” he said.

His eyes looked straight into hers.  There was something pitiless, something almost brutal, in their regard.  In spite of herself she flinched, and lowered her own.

“Answer me!” he said.

She felt the hot colour rush in a guilty flood over her face.  “It was only—­for once,” she faltered.  “I wanted sleep, and I couldn’t get it.”

“Kieff gave it you,” he said, his tone grimly insistent.

She nodded.  “Yes.  He meant well.  He saw I was fagged out.”

Burke was silent for a space, still grasping her hand.  Her head was throbbing dizzily, but she would not lower it to the pillow again in his presence.  She felt almost like a prisoner awaiting sentence.