Eleanor rose.
‘I shall leave you,’ she said, gently. ‘Stay here if you choose. I shall go to Mrs. Parker.’
Gilbert and Michael both made a movement towards the door, but something in Gilbert’s look caused Michael to fall back and yield place to his brother. He turned away, went inside the room again, and looked into the fire, feeling that he could afford to be very magnanimous.
Gilbert opened the door, and as Eleanor was passing out, he said to her almost in a whisper—
‘Only one word. You and he—are you—has he—have you given him any promise?’
Eleanor looked at him steadily, though without any of the old distrust, and then answered him in the same voice, but with a proud smile—
‘I have promised him everything. I have given my life into his hands.’
‘I am too late?’
She hesitated, looking troubled. Gilbert smiled slightly.
‘I should always have been too late, Eleanor?’