He put his arms round her, and she only half resisted, though she said:
"But, oh, Joel, you forget that I'm another man's wife."
"I don't forget it. The fact's there; but we'll disregard it. We'll go away, now, at once...."
She tore herself suddenly from him as though his embrace stung her. "What am I doing? What are you saying? Oh, Joel, we cannot...."
It was not till then that she realised her position. She loved this man, and, though she had married Peter Fleming, his image had floated before her mind through all the years of his absence, and she had often regretted that she had not waited for him. His return had excited her; she liked his admiration and his caresses, and, at their last meeting, she had let her feelings have their way. She had been full of thoughts of that which might have been. But she had never intended being seriously disloyal to her husband. She had come to see Joel, so she told herself, merely to bid him good-bye; to tell him that they must not meet again; and to say that she hoped he would be happy. Now she was aghast at the place where her actions had brought her. Go off with Joel? She could not dream of such a thing! He was an honourable man, only over-wrought by his love for her. He could never really think of taking her away.
"Be brave, Lucy," he said.
"I must leave you. We must part."
"Be true to yourself, Lucy."
"I should loathe myself if I did as you asked."