_Die Luft ist kühl, und es dunkelt,
Und ruhig fliesst der Rhein._ She liked Heine best of all: _Wie Träume der Kindheit seh' ich es flimmern
Auf deinem wogenden Wellengebiet,
Und alte Erinnerung erzählt mir auf's Neue
Von all dem lieben herrlichen Spielzeug,
Von all den blinkenden Weihnachtsgaben...._ As she lay in Siegmund's arms again, and he was very still, dreaming she
knew not what, fragments such as these flickered and were gone, like the
gleam of a falling star over water. The night moved on imperceptibly
across the sky. Unlike the day, it made no sound and gave no sign, but
passed unseen, unfelt, over them. Till the moon was ready to step forth.
Then the eastern sky blenched, and there was a small gathering of clouds
round the opening gates: _Aus alten Märchen winket es
Hervor mit weisser Hand,
Da singt es und da klingt es
Von einem Zauberland._
Helena sang this to herself as the moon lifted herself slowly among the
clouds. She found herself repeating them aloud in in a forgetful
singsong, as children do.
'What is it?' said Siegmund. They were both of them sunk in their own
stillness, therefore it was a moment or two before she repeated her
singsong, in a little louder tone. He did not listen to her, having
forgotten that he had asked her a question.
'Turn your head,' she told him, when she had finished the verse, 'and
look at the moon.' He pressed back his head, so that there was a gleaming pallor on his
chin and his forehead and deep black shadow over his eyes and his
nostrils. This thrilled Helena with a sense of mystery and magic.
'"_Die grossen Blumen schmachten_,"' she said to herself, curiously
awake and joyous. 'The big flowers open with black petals and silvery
ones, Siegmund. You are the big flowers, Siegmund; yours is the
bridegroom face, Siegmund, like a black and glistening flesh-petalled
flower, Siegmund, and it blooms in the _Zauberland_, Siegmund--this is
the magic land.' Between the phrases of this whispered ecstasy she kissed him swiftly on
the throat, in the shadow, and on his faintly gleaming cheeks. He lay
still, his heart beating heavily; he was almost afraid of the strange
ecstasy she concentrated on him. Meanwhile she whispered over him sharp,
breathless phrases in German and English, touching him with her mouth
and her cheeks and her forehead.
'"_Und Liebesweisen tönen_"-not tonight, Siegmund. They are all
still-gorse and the stars and the sea and the trees, are all kissing,
Siegmund. The sea has its mouth on the earth, and the gorse and the
trees press together, and they all look up at the moon, they put up
their faces in a kiss, my darling. But they haven't you-and it all
centres in you, my dear, all the wonder-love is in you, more than in
them all Siegmund--Siegmund!' He felt the tears falling on him as he lay with heart beating in slow
heavy drops under the ecstasy of her love. Then she sank down and lay
prone on him, spent, clinging to him, lifted up and down by the
beautiful strong motion of his breathing. Rocked thus on his strength,
she swooned lightly into unconsciousness.