“What need to look? It is your kingdom, you have told me. And I’ll share your kingdom whatever it may be.”
“It is situate in the Indies ... in Bombay,” said he, with a certain diffidence.
She considered.
“I always had a thirst for travel,” she said deliberately.
He felt that it was due to her that he should explain the nature of this appointment and how he came by it. To that explanation he proceeded. Before he had reached the end she was in tears.
“Why? Why? What now?” he cried in dismay. “Does your heart misgive you?”
“Misgive me? Oh, Randal! How can you think that? I weep for thankfulness. I have spent a month of such hopeless anguish, and now....”
He put an arm about her shoulder, and drew her head down on to his breast. “My dear,” he murmured. He sighed, and held her thus in a silence that was like a prayer, until, at length, she raised her face.
“Do you know, Randal, that it is more years than I care to think of since last you kissed me, and then you vexed me by stealing what is now yours to take.”