And then, after all, he must ask no pay,
But be satisfied merely to see it in print.”
He wished with all his heart that the girl he loved so well had married some man more worthy of her than Raymond Challoner, the libertine and gambler.
He turned the chair around. He had always imagined himself a brave man; now he knew that he had not the control over himself that he had imagined.
“Fool that I am, I would give ten years of my life to live those three blissful weeks at Newport over again,” he muttered sadly and hoarsely. “I feel so unnerved that I almost wish that I could find some excuse for leaving this house without seeing Jess; but that cannot be, I suppose, for that must be Mrs. Trevalyn’s step which I hear in the corridor.”
With a heavy sigh he crushed back the unhappiness that had swept over his heart, and summoned by a mighty effort the calm expression which had become habitual to his face, and the coldness to his eyes.
It was not an instant too soon, however, for at that moment the portières before the door were swept back by a white, jeweled hand.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
AT HIS FEET.
“Can I behold thee, and not speak my love?
E’en now, thus sadly, as thou standst before me,