She  started  a  little  at  what  she  had  done,  and  drew
back,  half  afraid,  like  an  innocent  girl.  But  as  though  he
had  obeyed  her  words,  he  seemed  to  sleep  more  deeply
still.  He  must  be  very  tired,  she  thought,  to  sleep  like
that,  but  she  was  thankful  that  the  soft  kiss,  the  first  and
last,  had  not  waked  him.
'  Sleep  on,'  she  said  again  in  a  whisper  scarcely  audible
to  herself.  *  Forget  Unorna,  if  you  cannot  think  of  her
mercifully  and  kindly.  Sleep  on — you  have  the  right  to
rest,  and  I  can  never  rest  again.  You  have  forgiven —
forget,  too,  then,  unless  you  can  remember  better  things  of
me  than  I  have  deserved  in  your  memory.  Let  her  take
her  kingdom  back.  It  was  never  mine — remember  what
you  will,  forget  at  least  the  wrong  I  did,  and  forgive  the
wrong  you  never  knew — for  you  will  know  it  surely  some
day.  Ah,  love — I  love  you  so — dream  but  one  dream,  and
let  me  think  I  take  her  place.  She  never  loved  you  more
than  I,  she  never  can.  She  would  not  have  done  what  I
have  done.  Dream  only  that  I  am  Beatrice  for  this  once.
Then  when  you  wake  you  will  not  think  so  cruelly  of  me.
Oh,  that  I  might  be  she — and  you  your  loving  self — that  I
might  be  she  for  one  day  in  thought  and  word,  in  deed  and
voice,  in  face  and  soul !  Dear  love — you  would  never
know  it,  yet  I  should  know  that  you  had  had  one  loving


356  THE  WITCH  OF  PRAGUE  CHAP.
