His hand fell to her shoulder. With a quick movement, a stifled exclamation, the girl rose and flung her arms about him.
‘Are you really glad?—Do you really love me?’
‘Never doubt it, dear girl.’
‘Ah, but I can’t help. I have hardly slept at night, in trying to get rid of the doubt. When you opened the door, I felt you didn’t welcome me. Don’t you think of me as a burden? I can’t help wondering why I am here.’
He took hold of her left hand, and looked at it, then said playfully:
‘Of course you wonder. What business has a wife to come and see her husband without the ring on her finger?’
Nancy turned from him, opened the front of her dress, unknotted a string of silk, and showed her finger bright with the golden circlet.
‘That’s how I must wear it, except when I am with you. I keep touching—to make sure it’s there.’
Tarrant kissed her fingers.
‘Dear,’—she had her face against him—‘make me certain that you love me. Speak to me like you did before. Oh, I never knew in my life what it was to feel ashamed!’