She looked up at him with unutterable love.
"Do you really care so much for it, Lance? Have you never seen a face you like as well?"
"No, and never shall see one, my darling; when we are parted it will live in my heart bright and fair until we meet again."
Then the tender arms clung more tightly to him.
"Must we be parted, Lance?" she whispered. "We were married in the sight of Heaven—must we leave each other? Oh, Lance, it cannot be true; no one can say that I am not your wife."
Quietly and calmly trying to command himself, he told her then how inevitable it was that they must submit to the voice of the law during the next few months, so as to insure their future happiness and fair name. And then he told her of the favor conferred upon him, and how he was compelled to accept it or never to hope for court favor again.
She listened with a face that seemed turned to stone. Slowly the tender arms unwound themselves and fell by her side; slowly the beautiful eyes left his and filled with despair. He tried to console her.
"You see, my darling," he said, "that in any case we must have parted. Though this appointment is a mark of royal regard, still it is quite imperative. I could not have refused it without ruin to my future career, and I could not have taken you with me, so that for a time we must have parted."
"I see," she said, gently, but her hands fell, and a shudder that she could not control passed over her.
"Leone," said Lord Chandos, "we have not long to be together, and we have much to arrange. Tell me, first, what you thought of my mother?"