The Major frowned, and kissed his child’s pale face, prior to making another grievous mistake in his troubled life.
Chapter Twenty Nine.
The Explosion.
There was joy in the little cottage by the swiftly running river one day about a fortnight later, when a shadow was cast across the window; and with a cry of delight Dinah looked up from her work and saw that Clive Reed had approached silently, and was gazing in.
The next moment she was nestling in his strong arms, responding to his kisses, and feeling once more safe, protected, and that there was nothing more to fear or wish for in life.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she whispered, as she drew him farther in with the blood flushing in her cheeks, and her hands trembling, lest her abandonment in her ecstasy of delight had been seen.
“Why not?” cried Clive. “I feel as if I could melt away into smiles and laughter—there’s a beautiful idea, pet—in the joy I feel at being back—at holding you in these great rough arms, at feeling safe, and that you had not forgotten me and run away with some fine handsome fellow while I was gone.”
“Clive!”