Oscar’s reply was a heavy sigh, almost a groan.
Io looked up anxiously into his face. “O my beloved husband,” she cried, “you have now found out the secret of my sadness; and now that you know all, my soul is relieved of its burden. Will you not also open your heart? will you not tell me why your life has lost its brightness? There should be no secret between husband and wife.”
Oscar took both hands of his Io, and his eyes gazed into hers with an expression of mingled love and sorrow which she remembered to her dying day. “There should be no secret between us. Io, I would tell you everything were not your peace dearer to me than my own.” (‡ See [illustration].)
“Any knowledge is better than ignorance,” exclaimed Io in an agitated tone.
“Did Eve find it so?” asked Oscar. “No, my beloved,” he continued, still holding her hand in his own; “on this one subject you must not press me to speak. You cannot relieve me of my burden; you cannot even help me to bear it. Let this be the last time that you even allude to its existence. I ask only your silence and your prayers.” Oscar pressed a tender kiss on Io’s brow, took up his letters, and quitted the room.
CHAPTER XV.
MOUNT AND AWAY.
“Ha! ha! Master Thucydides Thorn, you are evidently a second Don Quixote, bent on adventures, or you would not start with a square yard of black sticking-plaster, bound ‘with red rags to look like blood,’ hanging round your neck! That is something like business. Ha! ha! ha!”
It was Dr. Pinfold who thus chatted and laughed. He had come to see Io start on her expedition, and was rejoiced to find his favourite looking already in much better health. Io’s spirits had rebounded after their late depression, the cause of that depression having been suddenly removed. She looked bright and quite ready to enjoy herself as she gazed up laughingly at the elephant, wondering how she should ever reach the height of his back.
“Make the brute kneel to his lady, as in duty bound!” cried the doctor to the kahaut [driver], who was perched on the elephant’s neck. The man shook his head, and jabbered something unintelligible to most of the party.