“Not if I have got your help by it, madam.”
“Gallantly spoken.”
She smiled with a simple grace. The next moment she consulted her watch.
“Time has gone faster than I anticipated. I must leave you. Let this be our stipulation:”
She lowered her voice.
“You shall have the address you require. I will undertake to see her myself, when next I am in London. It will be soon. In return, sir, favour me with your word of honour not to molest this gentleman any further. Will you do that? You may trust me.”
“I do, madam, with all my soul!” said Robert.
“That's sufficient. I ask no more. Good morning.”
Her parting bow remained with him like a vision. Her voice was like the tinkling of harp-strings about his ears. The colour of her riding-habit this day, harmonious with the snow-faced earth, as well as the gentle mission she had taken upon herself, strengthened his vivid fancy in blessing her as something quite divine.
He thought for the first time in his life bitterly of the great fortune which fell to gentlemen in meeting and holding equal converse with so adorable a creature; and he thought of Rhoda as being harshly earthly; repulsive in her coldness as that black belt of water contrasted against the snow on the shores.