'
'Winifred, I've warmed this hand, now give me the other.'
She stretched her other hand across her breast and gave it to me.
This brought her entire body close to me, and I said, 'Winnie, you
are cold all over. Won't you let the Prince of the Mist put his arms
round you and warm you?'
'Oh, I should like it so much,' she said. 'But are you warm, Prince?
are you really warm?--your mist is mostly very cold.'
'Quite warm, Winifred,' I said, as with my heart swelling in my
breast, and with eyelids closing over my eyes from very joy, I drew
her softly upon my breast once more.
'Yes--yes,' I murmured, as the tears gushed from my eyes and dropped
upon the soft hair that I was kissing. 'If God will but let me have
her _thus_! I ask for nothing better than to possess a maniac.'
As we sat locked in each other's arms the head of Sinfi appeared
round the eastern cliff of the gorge where I had first seen Winifred.
The Gypsy had evidently been watching us from there. I perceived
that she was signalling to me that I was not to grasp Winifred.
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