She looked around over her shoulder, then rose from her knees, flung an armful of clothing into the trunk before which she had been kneeling, and came across the room to him. Then she dismissed her maid from the room. And when the girl had gone:
“I am well, Victor,” she said in a low voice. “Why are you troubled?”
“I can’t bear to have you drawn into this horrible affair once more.”
“Who else is there to discover and overcome Sanang?” she asked calmly.
He remained silent.
So, for a few moments they stood confronting each other there in the still, sunny chamber—husband and wife who had never even exchanged the first kiss—two young creatures more vitally and intimately bound together than any two on earth—yet utterly separated body and soul from each other—two solitary spirits which had never merged; two bodies virginal and inviolate.
Tressa spoke first: “I must go. That was our bargain.”
The word made him wince as though it had been a sudden blow. Then his face flushed red.
“Bargain or no bargain,” he said, “I don’t want you to go because I’m afraid you can not endure another shock like the last one.... And every time you have thrown your own mind and body between this Nation and destruction you have nearly died of it.”
“And if I die?” she said in a low voice.