'I love you,' I heard her whisper.
'You love me!' I repeated in amazement.
'Give yourself up to me,' was whispered me again in reply.
'Give myself up to you! But you are a phantom; you have no body even.' A strange animation came upon me. 'What are you — smoke, air, vapour? Give myself up to you! Answer me first, Who are you? Have you lived upon the earth? Whence have you come?'
'Give yourself up to me. I will do you no harm. Only say two words: "Take me."'
I looked at her. 'What is she saying?' I thought. 'What does it all mean? And how can she take me? Shall I try?'
'Very well,' I said, and unexpectedly loudly, as though some one had given me a push from behind; 'take me!'
I had hardly uttered these words when the mysterious figure, with a sort of inward laugh, which set her face quivering for an instant, bent forward, and stretched out her arms wide apart. . . . I tried to dart away, but I was already in her power. She seized me, my body rose a foot from the ground, and we both floated smoothly and not too swiftly over the wet, still grass.
111
