I thought you'd run away to
Italy--or somewhere else where I couldn't follow--that I'd lost
you----"
He saw her face and how deeply stirred she was. She had blazed up in
answer to him, but that very fire lit up something in her which was not
new, but which now stood out full armed--a clear-eyed austerity.
"I felt, too, as though I were running away--to the ends of the
world--but not from you, Robert. I wanted you to come too. I asked
you. You're not frightened now, are you?"
"Not so much."
"Let's be quiet--quite quiet, Robert. We've got to talk this out,
haven't we? I've got to understand. Sit here and help me tie these
together. They're for Christine. It'll make it easier for us. You
didn't mean this to happen. It was the sun and wind--it goes to one's
head like being out of prison after years and years. You mustn't make
a mistake. You would never forgive yourself or me. I'd understand if
you said: 'It was just to-day and being happy.' But I won't play at
our being in love with one another, Robert."
"It isn't a mistake, I'm not playing. I don't pretend I meant to let
you know. I was frightened. I wanted to hold fast to you. But I've
been sure ever since that night at Brown's----"
"And yet you wanted to avoid me----"
He nodded. Ho knelt beside her, very white and earnest, with his hands
clenched on his thighs.
"That was because I knew. I didn't think about it. But I knew all
right.
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