"Not 'poor Tony,' now I see you again," he said. "Marise, you're more beautiful than ever. You're the most beautiful thing on this globe. Where can we go, where a lot of huge windows won't be glaring at us like bulging eyes?"
"There's nobody to glare through them," answered Marise. "My—he—isn't at home."
"I know," said Severance. "That's why I hurried to you without stopping even to bathe and change. I wanted a talk with you before thrashing things out with Garth. 'Wanted'? That isn't the word! I thirsted, I burned for it. He's not in the house, but servants are. Marise, I've travelled six thousand miles, hardly resting—just for this moment—and others to follow—better moments. Give me one of the better ones now. I deserve a reward. And I can't take it here on this beastly terrace."
Marise suddenly realised that nothing in the world would move her from the terrace. She was glad of the window-eyes. They were her protectors against—against—the man she had loved.
The words spoke themselves in her head. She heard them. She was surprised at them. Had loved! Didn't she love Tony Severance now? If not, why had she done all that she had done—so many wild, reckless things? It seemed that she was asking the question not of herself, but of the Canyon. The Canyon was like God. In the glittering, flaming, blue-shadowed depths of it was knowledge of Everything.
"I think we must stay here," she said. "There is no other place where we can very well go. Would you—like to sit down on that seat by the wall?"
"What I would like is to kneel at your feet with my arms round your waist and my head on your breast—your dear, divine breast," answered Severance.
"Well—you can't!" she panted. "Tony, be sensible!" She sat down hastily, and Severance dropped beside her on the velvet-cushioned stone seat. He sat very close to the girl, and she edged slightly away.
As she did so, he followed until she was pressed into the corner of the bench. He laid his arm along the back of the seat, and pressed her thinly-covered shoulder.
"Please don't!" she whispered.