He walked up and down, not without some humorous bewilderment in spite of his emotion. The saints, it seemed, are persons of determination! But, after a minute, he thought of nothing, realized nothing, save that Mary was in the little house again, and that one of those low voices he could just hear, as a murmur in the distance, through the thin walls of the cottage, was hers.
The door opened softly, and she came in. Though she had taken off her hat, she still wore her blue cloak of Irish frieze, which fell round her slender figure in long folds. Her face was rosy with rain and wind; the same wind and rain which had stamped such a gray fatigue on Alice Puttenham's cheeks. Amid the dusk, the fire-light touched her hair and her ungloved hand. She was a vision of youth and soft life; and her composure, her slight, shy smile, would alone have made her beautiful.
Their hands met as she gently greeted him. But there was that in his look which disturbed her gentleness—which deepened her colour. She hurried to speak.
"I am so glad that mother made you stay—just that I might tell you." Then her breath began to hasten. "Mother says you are—or may be—unjustly attacked—that you don't think it right to defend yourself publicly—and those who follow you, and admire you, may be hurt and troubled. I wanted to say—and mother approves—that whoever is hurt and troubled, I can never be—except for you. Besides, I shall know and ask nothing. You may be sure of that. And people will not dare to speak to me."
She stood proudly erect.
Meynell was silent for a moment. Then, by a sudden movement, he stooped and kissed a fold of her cloak. She drew back with a little stifled cry, putting out her hands, which he caught. He kissed them both, dropped them, and walked away from her.
When he returned it was with another aspect.
"Don't let's make too much of this trouble. It may all die away—or it may be a hard fight. But whatever happens, you are going to Westmoreland immediately. That is my great comfort."
"Is it?" She laughed unsteadily.
He too smiled. There was intoxication he could not resist—in her presence—and in what it implied.