It was the first time that the youth had been present on such an occasion , and he stood silently aside watching the graceful dances and the pretty games played by the young people . And as he watched , he noticed one girl , dressed in white with scarlet pomegranates in her hair , who seemed to him lovelier than all the rest . When the feast was over , and the young man returned home , his manner was so strange that it drew the attention of all his friends . Through his work next day the youth continued to see the girl 's face , throwing the ball to her companions , or threading her way between them as she danced . At night sleep fled from him , and after tossing for hours on his bed , he would get up and plunge into a deep pool that lay a little way in the forest . This state of things went on for some weeks , then at last chance favoured him . One evening , as he was passing near the house where she lived , he saw her standing with her back to the wall , trying to beat off with her fan the attacks of a savage dog that was leaping at her throat . Alonzo , for such was his name , sprang forward , and with one blow of his fist stretched the creature dead upon the road . He then helped the frightened and half-fainting girl into the large cool verandah where her parents were sitting , and from that hour he was a welcome guest in the house , and it was not long before he was the promised husband of Julia . Every day , when his work was done , he used to go up to the house , half hidden among flowering plants and brilliant creepers , where humming-birds darted from bush to bush , and parrots of all colours , red and green and grey , shrieked in chorus . There he would find the maiden waiting for him , and they would spend an hour or two under the stars , which looked so large and bright that you felt as if you could almost touch them . ` What did you do last night after you went home ? ' suddenly asked the girl one evening . ` Just the same as I always do , ' answered he . ` It was too hot to sleep , so it was no use going to bed , and I walked straight of to the forest and bathed in one of those deep dark pools at the edge of the river . I have been there constantly for several months , but last night a strange thing happened . I was taking my last plunge , when I heard -- sometimes from one side , and sometimes from another -- the sound of a voice singing more sweetly than any nightingale , though I could not catch any words . I left the pool , and , dressing myself as fast as I could , I searched every bush and tree round the water , as I fancied that perhaps it was my friend who was playing a trick on me , but there was not a creature to be seen ; and when I reached home I found my friend fast asleep . ' As Julia listened her face grew deadly white , and her whole body shivered as if with cold . From her childhood she had heard stories of the terrible beings that lived in the forests and were hidden under the banks of the rivers , and could only be kept off by powerful charms .
Could the voice which had bewitched Alonzo have come XXXXX one of these ?
As after at from in of on that under with