"Do you think that's it?" she asked rather pathetically. "I hope it is. It isn't that I want all that to come back, though it did make me very happy while it lasted. But I don't want to disappoint him. I don't want to give him something, just because I feel like it for the moment, and then take it away again."
"If you give him something because you feel like it—well, that's just what you'll be right in doing, darling. It wouldn't be right to hold it back. If you feel like it at any time, it shows it's there. I'm sure he's worth loving, B."
"Oh, yes, he is. I think I do love him. I know I want him to come back to-morrow."
Those were the words that rang in Caroline's ears when Beatrix had left her, comforted, and assured of her forgiveness for the horrid way in which she had behaved herself towards her. Poor little B! It would all have been so different if this had been the first time she had trodden the happy path of love. She was all softness and sweetness, made to capitulate to a strong man's wooing. But she had been bruised and torn, and there were sensitive places in her which shrank from the lightest touch. Her lover would not get the full response from her until he had taught her not to fear his touch on them.
But she wanted him to come back. Her heart was fluttering out to meet him. Its wings would grow stronger.
He came early the next morning. He had walked the three miles from Wilborough, where breakfast was earlier than at Abington, because any other mode of progression would have brought him there before it was convenient, and yet he wanted to be moving. Beatrix had gone down the ferny glade towards the gate in the wall that led into the park, not expecting to meet him so soon, but because she also felt it necessary to be in motion, and that was the way he would probably come.
She was close upon the gate when he opened it and came through. His face looked as if it had been suddenly struck with a bright light as he saw her. But he hesitated a moment before he spoke. He was still putting constraint on himself.
She saw the sudden bright look, and the change, and it moved her profoundly. She was rather taken by surprise too, for she had not expected to see him, though she had come down through the park with no other purpose. But she smiled at him and said: "Here I am, you see, waiting for you."
Was it an invitation? He couldn't tell. He had not been prepared for it. He smiled at her in return. "You won't often have to wait for me," he said. "If I had thought you would be out so early I would have motored over."
Then she turned, and they walked slowly back towards the house together. At first both of them were at a loss what to say.