And, as his arms went about her once more, nigh crushing the breath out of her, she shut her eyes and received his answering kisses in passionate glorious silence.
[CHAPTER XXVI—THE STOLEN HOUR]
She had come to him! Impelled by her love she had come to him! That was the jubilant thought in Daniel’s rejoicing heart. At last she had turned her back upon the amusements and pleasures of the old life, finding them altogether unsatisfying now, and she had come to him! She loved him, and she had given up all to come to him! No longer was romance to be sandwiched in between race-meetings and dances, between “At Homes” and opera-parties: she had renounced the whole thing, and had come to him!
“How did you manage it?” he said, looking at her with admiration in his eyes.
“Oh, it was quite simple,” she laughed. “There was nothing extraordinary in my joining the Bindanes on their trip; and then ...”
She told him how she had waited until Mr. Bindane was out of the way, and had then made a bolt for it.
“But what is the next step?” he asked. “What about the future?”
“Oh, man,” she cried, “don’t talk about the future—that can wait till you have time to think.”
The words may have had no particular significance, but to Daniel they seemed to be the most wonderful he had ever heard. They meant to him that she trusted him, that she placed her future in his hands, that she gave herself unreservedly to him. She left it to him to think out what he was going to do with her....
He looked at her with deep gratitude in his face; for she had, as it were, crowned him as lord of their destinies and enthroned him upon the very pinnacle of eventuality.