He dragged himself nearer to her on his knees.

’Oh! to have you in my arms!  In the night I awake from dreams in which I see you near me; but, alas! you are ever far away.  There seems to be some wall built up between us which I can never beat down.  And yet I am now quite strong again; I could catch you up in my arms and swing you over my shoulder, and carry you off as though you belonged to me.’

He had let himself sink upon his elbows, in an attitude of deep adoration.  And he breathed a kiss upon the hem of Albine’s skirt.  But at this the girl sprang up, as though it was she herself that had received the kiss.  She hid her brow with her hands, perturbed, quivering, and stammering forth:  ‘Don’t! don’t!  I beg of you.  Let us go on.’

She did not hurry away, but let Serge follow her as she walked slowly on, stumbling against the roots of the plants, and with her hands still clasped round her head, as though to check the excitement that thrilled her.  When they came out of the little wood, they took a few steps over ledges of rocks, on which a whole nation of ardent fleshy plants was squatting.  It was like a crawling, writhing assemblage of hideous nameless monsters such as people a nightmare; monsters akin to spiders, caterpillars, and wood-lice, grown to gigantic proportions, some with bare glaucous skins, others tufted with filthy matted hairs, whilst many had sickly limbs—­dwarf legs, and shrivelled, palsied arms—­sprawling around them.  And some displayed horrid dropsical bellies; some had spines bossy with hideous humps, and others looked like dislocated skeletons.  Mamillaria threw up living pustules, a crawling swarm of greenish tortoises, bristling hideously with long hairs that were stiffer than iron.  The echinocacti, which showed more flesh, suggested nests of young writhing, knotted vipers.  The echinopses were mere excrescent red-haired growths that made one think of huge insects rolled into balls.  The prickly-pears spread out fleshy leaves spotted with ruddy spikes that resembled swarms of microscopic bees.  The gasterias sprawled about like big shepherd-spiders turned over on their backs, with long-speckled and striated legs.  The cacti of the cereus family showed a horrid vegetation, huge polyps, the diseases of an overheated soil, the maladies of poisoned sap.  But the aloes, languidly unfolding their hearts, were particularly numerous and conspicuous.  Among them one found every possible tint of green, pale green and vivid, yellowish green and greyish, browny green, dashed with a ruddy tone, and deep green, fringed with pale gold.  And the shapes of their leaves were as varied as their tints.  Some were broad and heart-shaped, others were long and narrow like sword-blades; some bristled with spikey thorns, while yet others looked as though they had been cunningly hemmed at the edges.  There were giant ones, in lonely majesty, with flower stalks that towered up aloft like poles wreathed with rosy coral; and there were tiny ones clustering thickly together on one and the same stem, and throwing forth on all sides leaves that gleamed and quivered like adders’ tongues.