CHAPTER SIXFor a while Charles stayed as he was, feeling as if he was transfixed. Then he began to follow Cliona across the lawn, her pale dress just visible as it fluttered in the semidarkness.
Between the trees and flowers he moved, until he came to a small stream where Cliona was standing, looking into the water, as he had first seen her.
It flashed through his mind that perhaps she was so fond of the water, because she was part of it herself. That somehow, if he was not careful, she would step into it and disappear.
Instead of being earth-bound and ordinary as other women were, she was mystical and not really of this world.
‘I must stop thinking these absurd thoughts and be sensible,’ he told himself.
But he did not want to be sensible where Cliona was concerned. He wanted to fall
