"Indeed I can, and will," answered Gilbert, without the least hesitation.
"At the risk of the Queen's displeasure?"
"At any risk."
"How strange it is!" exclaimed Beatrix, raising her eyebrows a little, but smiling happily. "This morning you would not have risked anything especial for the sake of finding me, but now that we have met by chance you are ready to do anything and everything to see me again."
"Of some things," answered her companion, "one does not know how much one wants them till they are within reach."
"And there are others which one longs for till one has them, and which one despises as soon as they are one's own."
"What things may those be?" asked Gilbert.
"I have heard Queen Eleanor say that a husband is one of them," answered Beatrix, demurely, "but I dare say that she is not always right."
Side by side the two sat in the autumn noonday, each forgetful of all but the other, in the perfect unconsciousness of the difference their meeting was to make in their lives from that day onward. Yet after the first few words they did not speak again of Beatrix's father nor of Gilbert's mother. By a common instinct they tried to lose both, in the happiness of again finding one another.
Then, at last, a cloud passed over the sun, and Beatrix felt a little chill that was like the breath of a coming evil while Gilbert became suddenly very grave and thoughtful.