I had to carry her through the lane, nevertheless, and so on mostly until we reached the woods, where I could trust her to her own pretty feet. And there we walked in security, like authorised lovers.
“Now,” I said, “I have been forgetting everything but just our two selves. Is Lady Skene so very unapproachable, Ira?”
She stopped me suddenly, clinging to me, with a pained line come between her eyes.
“What does it all mean, Richard? There is something more than the child—I am sure of it; and it fills me with fear and anxiety.”
I held her silent a little, turning my face away in a gloom of irresolution.
“Yes, Ira, there is something more,” I said presently, and very softly—“something terribly serious and terribly upsetting.”
“I was certain of it,” she whispered. “And you know what it is? I can never forget her face that evening I found you, together. Am I not to know, Richard? It is not for my curiosity, indeed.”
“I am sure of it, dear,” I said. “It is your love for her. But I have a greater claim on your love now, Ira, and I must ask you, for the sake of that claim, to forbear questioning me at present. The secret is not my own—at least, not all my own—though it affects my interests very closely. Sometimes, even, I dare to hope of it a better claim to you than I possess now. But you mustn’t ask me, dear. There are ordeals, and interviews, and all sorts of unhappy explanations to be gone through with before I can trust myself to reveal it to you. But you mustn’t suppose, in the meantime, that I am Lady Skene’s enemy. Indeed, if that is true which I expect to be true, my interference will benefit her—in one way, at least. I am trying to circumvent a scoundrel, Ira, and chance has put some very wonderful evidence in my hands. I must not tell you more than that.”
“You are not in any danger—you yourself, Richard?” she asked fearfully.
“No, you love,” I said—“not more that most people who set themselves to battle against the forces of villainy. And now I am double-armoured in your love. It will be such a joy to me, Ira, to put it all out of mind when I am alone, and let your little image in to talk with me, and laugh with me, and sleep with me, too, for you can’t help it.”