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"Stop," he begged ers about my hand "Stop your kisses and your reason, and do as I say "

He took a deep breath, and for the first time in all my life with him, I saw him take a handkerchief from his coat and pat the moisture on his own forehead and his lips The cloth was faintly red He looked at it

"I want to show you soo," he said "Dress yourself, quickly Here, I'll help you "

I was fully dressed for the cold winter night in less than a few loves trimmed in miniver, and put a black velvet cap on my head The shoes he chose were black leather boots, which he never wanted me to wear before To him the ankles of the boys were beautiful, and he did not favor boots, though he did not mind if ore them by day when he could not see

He was so troubled, so distressed, and all his face, despite its blanched cleanliness, was so infused with it, that I couldn't keep fro hi onto mine

I closed my eyes I felt his hand cover up my face and cover my eyelids

There was a great noise aroundabout of the broken fragments of that door I'd shattered, and of draperies billowed and snapped

The cold air of outside surrounded me He set me down, blind, and I knew my feet were on the quay I could hear the water of the canal near , as the winter wind stirred it and drove the sea into the city, and I could hear a wooden boat knocking persistently against a dock

He let slip his fingers, and I opened my eyes

We were far from the palazzo I was abashed to see us at such a distance, though I was not really surprised He could do wonders, and so he let me know this now We were in back alleyways We stood on a s by a narrow canal I had never ventured into this mean district where workmen lived

I saw only the back porches of houses, and their ironclad s, and a general squalor and blindness, and a rankness as refuse floated on the water of the dipping, splashing winter-blown canal

He turned and dreith hie, and for a moment I couldn't see His white hand flashed out I beheld one finger pointed and then I beheld a ondola that had been drawn up out of the water and set on work I saw his hulking fussing shape as he grumbled and cursed at us that we dared to disturb his sleep

I reached for er I saw the flash of his blade The white hand of the Master, glowing like quartz, see and rolling on the stones Befuddled and enraged, the reat clumsy bid to knock my Master off his feet

My Master caught hi of evil-s wool I saw my Master's face His ers unto themselves, as he bit down into the man's throat I heard thebody went still

Astonished and enthralled, I watched assilvery in the dimness, and I heard a loet sound, barely audible but horribly suggestive of the flow of so had to be the man's blood My Master pressed himself ever ers coaxing the life fluid froave off