“No, no. Oh, go away—go away, and never return to make me feel how miserable I am!”
“I'll not go away. There's some mystery about you and this house, and I'll not go before I fathom it.”
She looked up and saw him standing there with his arms folded.
She leaped up so quickly that she almost seemed to spring into his arms. He thought so, at any rate, and was about to clasp her when she caught both of his hands in her own, gazing tearfully—eagerly—wistfully, into his face.
“Dick—dear Dick,” she said; “if you love me still—and I know you do—you will leave me now. Oh, you should never have come here—I did not mean you to come; but if you love me, Dick, you will leave me now—leave me and go into the nearest coffee-house, and ask of the first man you see there who is Nell Gwyn? What is Nell Gwyn? If you return to me after that, then—then, Dick, I swear to you that I'll marry you; there will be none to stay us then, none to come between—the King himself shall not come between us.”
He gripped her hands fiercely, his face close down to hers.
“By God, I 'll do it!” he said, through his set teeth. “I'll do it. You have put it upon me. I know that I shall hear nothing but what is good of you, and I'll return to claim you, as sure as there's a sun in heaven.”
He dropped her hands, snatched up his hat, and walked firmly to the door. When there, he turned slowly and looked back at her. She was standing pale and lovely where he had left her. Her eyes were upon his face.
He flung himself through the door, and she fell on her knees beside the settee, burying her face in one of its cushions.
For some minutes, nothing was heard in the room but the sound of her sobs; but then the silence was broken by a shout outside—a shout and the noise of a scuffle. Cries of “Hold him back! Hold him back!” came from the servants, and mixed with some full-bodied imprecations in other voices. Nell started to her feet, as the door of the room was all but crashed in, and she was standing with a startled look on her face, as the door was flung wide open, and Dick Harraden hurled a limp antagonist into the room.