“No; I don’t doubt anything you say. But I think she is a dreadful woman to get anybody in her power, Aubrey. My little drawing was for you. It was the place we first met, and she told me how to do it and make it look so much better. I am not very clever at it, you know; and then I hated the very sight of it, and tore it in two. I don’t know why.”
“I understand why. Bee, you will be faithful to me, whatever you are told?”
“Till I die, Aubrey.”
“And never, never believe that for a moment my heart will change from you.”
“Not till I hear it from yourself,” she said, with a woeful smile. The despair in him communicated itself to her, who had not been despairing at all.
“Which will never be—and when you are your own mistress, my darling——”
“Oh, we shan’t have to wait for that!” she cried, with a burst of her native energy. “Dear Aubrey, they are coming back; you must go away.”
“Till we meet again, darling?”
“Till we meet again!”