'God help this tormented soul, for I cannot,' he prayed; and said aloud, 'I will call your women; let me go.' So he tried to undo her hands, but she clenched her teeth together and held on with frenzy, whining, grunting, like some pounded animal.

Dumbly they strove together for a little panting space of time.
'Ah, but you shall let me go,' he said then, much distressed, and forcibly unknotted her mad hands.

She fell back upon her heels, and looked up at him.

Such hopeless, grinning misery he had never seen on a face before.

He was certain now that she was out of her wits.
Yet once again she brushed her hands over her face, as he had seen her do before, like one who sweeps gossamers away on autumn mornings; and though she was all in a shiver and shake with the fever she had, she found her voice at last.