When he saw her approaching he always had a moment of hallucination.

She was a misty and fair creature, fitted for invisible music, for the shadows of love, for the murmurs of waters.

After a time (he could not be always staring at the ground) he would summon up all his resolution and look at her.
There was a sparkle in the clear obscurity of her eyes; and when she turned them on him they seemed to give a new meaning to life.

He would say to himself that another man would have found long before the happy release of madness, his wits burnt to cinders in that radiance.

But no such luck for him.