In the Days of the Comet Page 62

  Section 3

  I came back to Lowchester House very tired, very wretched; exhaustedby my fruitless longing for Nettie. I had no thought of what laybefore me.

  A miserable attraction drew me into the great house to look againon the stillness that had been my mother's face, and as I came intothat room, Anna, who had been sitting by the open window, rose tomeet me. She had the air of one who waits. She, too, was pale withwatching; all night she had watched between the dead within andthe Beltane fires abroad, and longed for my coming. I stoodmute between her and the bedside. . . .

  "Willie," she whispered, and eyes and body seemed incarnate pity.

  An unseen presence drew us together. My mother's face became resolute,commanding. I turned to Anna as a child may turn to its nurse. Iput my hands about her strong shoulders, she folded me to her, andmy heart gave way. I buried my face in her breast and clungto her weakly, and burst into a passion of weeping. . . .

  She held me with hungry arms. She whispered to me, "There, there!"as one whispers comfort to a child. . . . Suddenly she was kissingme. She kissed me with a hungry intensity of passion, on my cheeks,on my lips. She kissed me on my lips with lips that weresalt with tears. And I returned her kisses. . . .

  Then abruptly we desisted and stood apart--looking at one another.