Linking her arm in his, Marguerite led her brother towards the cliffs.
“Half an hour,” she said, looking wistfully out to sea, “half an hour more and you’ll be far from me, Armand! Oh! I can’t believe that you are going, dear! These last few days—whilst Percy has been away, and I’ve had you all to myself, have slipped by like a dream.”
“I am not going far, sweet one,” said the young man gently, “a narrow channel to cross—a few miles of road—I can soon come back.”
“Nay, ’tis not the distance, Armand—but that awful Paris . . . just now . . .”
They had reached the edge of the cliff. The gentle sea-breeze blew Marguerite’s hair about her face, and sent the ends of her soft lace fichu waving round her, like a white and supple snake. She tried to pierce the distance far away, beyond which lay the shores of France: that relentless and stern France which was exacting her pound of flesh, the blood-tax from the noblest of her sons.
“Our own beautiful country, Marguerite,” said Armand, who seemed to have divined her thoughts.
“They are going too far, Armand,” she said vehemently. “You are a republican, so am I . . . we have the same thoughts, the same enthusiasm for liberty and equality . . . but even you must think that they are going too far . . .”
“Hush!—” said Armand, instinctively, as he threw a quick, apprehensive glance around him.
“Ah! you see: you don’t think yourself that it is safe even to speak of these things—here in England!” She clung to him suddenly with strong, almost motherly, passion: “Don’t go, Armand!” she begged; “don’t go back! What should I do if . . . if . . . if . . .”
Her voice was choked in sobs, her eyes, tender, blue and loving, gazed appealingly at the young man, who in his turn looked steadfastly into hers.