Helena lay in what shadow he afforded. The heat put out all her
thought-activity. Presently she said: 'This heat is terrible, Siegmund. Shall we go down to the water?' They climbed giddily down the cliff path. Already they were somewhat
sun-intoxicated. Siegmund chose the hot sand, where no shade was, on
which to lie.
'Shall we not go under the rocks?' said Helena.
'Look!' he said, 'the sun is beating on the cliffs. It is hotter, more
suffocating, there.' So they lay down in the glare, Helena watching the foam retreat slowly
with a cool splash; Siegmund thinking. The naked body of heat
was dreadful.
'My arms, Siegmund,' said she. 'They feel as if they were dipped in
fire.' Siegmund took them, without a word, and hid them under his coat.
'Are you sure it is not bad for you--your head, Siegmund? Are you sure?' He laughed stupidly.
'That is all right,' he said. He knew that the sun was burning through
him, and doing him harm, but he wanted the intoxication.
As he looked wistfully far away over the sea at Helena's mist-curtain,
he said: 'I _think_ we should be able to keep together if'--he faltered--'if only
I could have you a little longer. I have never had you ...' Some sound of failure, some tone telling her it was too late, some ring
of despair in his quietness, made Helena cling to him wildly, with a
savage little cry as if she were wounded. She clung to him, almost
beside herself. She could not lose him, she could not spare him. She
would not let him go. Helena was, for the moment, frantic.
He held her safely, saying nothing until she was calmer, when, with his
lips on her cheek, he murmured: 'I should be able, shouldn't I, Helena?' 'You are always able!' she cried. 'It is I who play with you at hiding.' 'I have really had you so little,' he said.
'Can't you forget it, Siegmund?' she cried. 'Can't you forget it? It was
only a shadow, Siegmund. It was a lie, it was nothing real. Can't you
forget it, dear?' 'You can't do without me?' he asked.
'If I lose you I am lost,' answered she with swift decision. She had no
knowledge of weeping, yet her tears were wet on his face. He held her
safely; her arms were hidden under his coat.
'I will have no mercy on those shadows the next time they come between
us,' said Helena to herself. 'They may go back to hell.' She still clung to him, craving so to have him that he could not be reft
away.