The contact of her soft
body, her fresh cheek, intoxicated him afresh. In the strength of his
desire for her, it was as though he were fighting off black vultures of
the night, forces of horror that threatened them both. He would not
believe what yet he already knew to be true. The thought of his mother
clamored at the door of his mind, and he would not open to it. In a
reckless defiance of what had overtaken him, he poured out tender and
passionate speech which gradually stilled the girl's tumult of memory
and foreboding, and brought back the heaven of their first moment on the
hill-side. Her own reserve broke down, and from her murmured words, her
sweetness, her infinite gratitude, Marsham might divine still more fully
the richness of that harvest which such a nature promised to a lover.
* * * * *
"I won't tell any one--but Muriel--till you have seen Lady Lucy," said
Diana, as they approached the house, and found Marsham's horse waiting
at the door.
He acquiesced, and it was arranged that he should go up to town the
following day, Sunday--see Lady Lucy--and return on the Monday.
Then he rode away, waving his hand through the darkness.
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