He caught his breath as he looked down into her white, straining face
“Is it impossible for us to go back five years? Is it impossible for us to go back to where we stood in those old days at Godolphin Court?”
The light that had suddenly been kindled in his face faded slowly, leaving it grey and drawn. His eyes grew clouded with sorrow and despair.
“Who has erred must abide by his error—and so must the generations that come after him. There is no going back ever. The gates of the past are tight-barred against us.”
“Then let us leave them so. Let us turn our backs upon that past, you and I, and let us set out afresh together, and so make amends to each other for what our folly has lost to us in those years.”
He set his hands upon her shoulders, and held her so at arm’s length from him considering her with very tender eyes.
“Sweet lady!” he murmured, and sighed heavily. “God! How happy might we not have been but for that evil chance....” He checked abruptly. His hands fell from her shoulders to his sides, he half-turned away, brusque now in tone and manner. “I grow maudlin. Your sweet pity has so softened me that I had almost spoke of love; and what have I to do with that? Love belongs to life; love is life; whilst I... Moriturus te salutat!”
“Ah, no, no!” She was clinging to him again with shaking hands, her eyes wild.
“It is too late,” he answered her. “There is no bridge can span the pit I have dug myself. I must go down into it as cheerfully as God will let me.”
“Then,” she cried in sudden exaltation, “I will go down with you. At the last, at least, we shall be together.”