He followed her step by step till at last they both stopped, facing each other under the big tree of the enclosure.
The solitary exile of the forests, great, motionless and solemn in his abandonment, left alone by the life of ages that had been pushed away from him by those pigmies that crept at his foot, towered high and straight above their heads.

He seemed to look on, dispassionate and imposing, in his lonely greatness, spreading his branches wide in a gesture of lofty protection, as if to hide them in the sombre shelter of innumerable leaves; as if moved by the disdainful compassion of the strong, by the scornful pity of an aged giant, to screen this struggle of two human hearts from the cold scrutiny of glittering stars.
The last cry of his appeal to her mercy rose loud, vibrated under the sombre canopy, darted among the boughs startling the white birds that slept wing to wing--and died without an echo, strangled in the dense mass of unstirring leaves.

He could not see her face, but he heard her sighs and the distracted murmur of indistinct words.

Then, as he listened holding his breath, she exclaimed suddenly-- "Have you heard him?
He has cursed me because I love you.

You brought me suffering and strife--and his curse.