"I promise you I will be quite calm; quite cool." And he embraced her fondly, closely, with passionate fervour.
"Then you are mine once more?" he asked.
She threw her arms round his neck, and kissed his lips, his eyes, his face.
"Yes," she said, "I am yours. Do what you will with me."
"Till we meet again," then said he; and he quitted the house.
Eva, left alone, looked about her with a shudder, as if seeking the evil she dreaded. She was afraid—afraid for herself and for Frank, but chiefly for Frank. In an instant her fears had risen to intolerable horror. She heard her father's step in the passage: she recognised his shuffling tread. It was impossible to her to meet him just then; she snatched up a cloak and wrapped it about her, pulling the hood over her head, as she rushed out of doors.
It was raining heavily.
VI.
Frank found Van Maeren at home. And Bertie saw at once that It had come. He read it in Frank's drawn face, heard it in the thick utterance of his voice. And at the same time he felt that the lax springs of his determination were trying to brace themselves in despair, in self-defence, and—that they failed.