"Wait and see!" cried the man. "Wait and see!" She shivered a little.
"If it is not true I should like to die before I find out. I should like to die now, Bayard, with your arms holding me up, and your eyes close, close."
Ste. Marie's arms tightened round her with a sudden fierceness. He hurt her, and she smiled up at him. Their two hearts beat one against the other, and they beat very fast.
"Don't you understand," he cried, "that life's only just beginning—day's just dawning, Coira? We've been lost in the dark. Day's coming now. This is only the sunrise."
"I can believe it at last," she said, "because you hold me close, and you hurt me a little, and I'm glad to be hurt. And I can feel your heart beating. Ah, never let me go, Bayard! I should be lost in the dark again, if you let me go." A sudden thought came to her, and she bent back her head to see the better.
"Did you speak with Arthur?" And he said—
"Yes. He asked me to read your note, so I read it. That poor lad! I came straight to you then. Straight and fast!"
"You knew why I did it?" she said, and Ste. Marie said—
"Now I know."
"I could not have married him," said she. "I could not. I never thought I should see you again, but I loved you and I could not have married him.—Ah, impossible! And he'll be glad, later on. You know that. It will save him any more trouble with his family, and besides—he's so very young! Already, I think, he was beginning to chafe a little. I thought so more than once.