Involuntarily I shivered as the dreary prospect of the future years rose up before my eyes.
“Madam,” I said at length hoarsely, “I have lingered to say farewell. I may no longer stay beneath your roof. What can I say to you? How can I thank you for that which you have done? What words of mine can be but inadequate—or aught but poor! What it has cost you to act as you have done I can but dimly guess! My lady, forget the words that you have spoken. They shall be as if they had never been—save to be treasured in my heart through all the years to come.” I paused trembling, and waited for her reply. Yet for a moment she did not speak.
“But,” she said at length in a low voice, without turning her head, “what if I do not choose to forget. Are you so sure, sir, that I was only acting?”
“How, madam!” I stammered. “I—I do not understand!”
“When you leave this house, sir,” she said in the same low tone, “what do you intend to do?”
“I shall cross to France, madam,” I answered, “and from thence to Flanders! There is always work there for a good sword—there is always fortune to be won there—or a nameless grave!” With a quick movement she rose to her feet.
“You go to France,” she said in a voice that thrilled me—“to France, whither my brother has already gone! Ah, Mr. Cassilis, will you not take me too?”
I could but stare at her in speechless wonder. Her face as she turned it towards me was so radiantly beautiful that the words I would have spoken died away upon my lips. She noted my confusion with a tender smile.
“There is nothing further that should keep me here,” she continued. “My sister is about to wed, and the name of Courtenay will secure her from any punishment the government would inflict—their services to William are too well known. But with me it is different. I have rendered my name notorious, and I am not minded to lose my liberty along with our estates. Therefore, I shall join my brother across the water. That is one reason, sir,” she said slowly, and came to a pause. A lovely colour suffused her face and neck. From beneath her long lashes she flashed a glance at me that set my heart beating furiously. “There is another,” she faltered. “You shame me to say it—I—it is—oh don’t you understand?” And she stretched out her arms to me.
And then indeed I understood. Understood—that God in His great mercy had given me His best earthly gift—a pure woman’s love. Yet for a moment I stepped backwards, battling with my own happiness.