The feeling slowly passed, and I heard the monk's voice, as though it were a long way off, asking me anxiously what was the matter.
I forced a smile.
"It is the heat, I think," I said, in feeble tones like those of a very aged man.

"I am faint--giddy.

You had best leave me here--see to the boy.

Oh, my God!" This last exclamation was wrung out of me by sheer anguish.

My limbs refused to support me, and a pang, cold and bitter as though naked steel had been thrust through my body, caused me to sink down upon the pavement in a kind of convulsion.