He hated the sight of the woman and her sinuous, evil beauty, but to be free of her was impossible, and to offend her, death.

All day long she kept him about her, and from his sleep he would wake up and as on the night of his arrival, distinguish her leaning over him studying his face by the light of the faintly-burning lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is about to strike.

He dared not stir or give the slightest sign that he saw her.
Nor indeed did he always see her, for he kept his eyes closely shut.
But even in his heaviest slumber some warning sense told him of her presence, and then above Jeekie's snores (for on these occasions Jeekie always snored his loudest) he would hear a soft footfall, as cat-like, she crept towards him, or the sweep of her spangled robe, or the tinkling of the scales of her golden breastplate.

For a long while she would stand there, examining him greedily and even the few little belongings that remained to him, and then with a hungry sigh glide away and vanish in the shadows.

How she came or how she vanished Alan could not discover.