’

He stood back a little, and left her standing there, statue-like, transported into the mystic glowing east. Already the rose was fading, large white stars were flashing out. He waited. He would forego everything but the yearning.

‘That was the most perfect thing I have ever seen,’ she said in cold, brutal tones, when at last she turned round to him. ‘It amazes me that you should want to destroy it. If you can’t see it yourself, why try to debar me?’ But in reality, he had destroyed it for her, she was straining after a dead effect.

‘One day,’ he said, softly, looking up at her, ‘I shall destroy YOU, as you stand looking at the sunset; because you are such a liar.’