All resolve, all desire to go on the morrow had left him. A new and a stronger one was waking in his veins.
He turned down the lamp burning beneath its pretty, rose-coloured shade and got into the bed, so carefully prepared for him, with lace-edged sheet and silken coverings.
As he laid his head down, on the pillow trimmed by Miss Marlow's own hands a murmur passed his lips:
"Well, I'll stay, and risk it."
CHAPTER II IN THE WAYS OF DELIGHT
The next morning Everest, after a troubled and restless night, found himself the first in the breakfast-room, and when the door opened it was Regina who came in. She was dressed in a morning cotton of rose-colour, and either by contrast to that, or from emotion, her face looked pale as their eyes met and he took her hand in his.
"You were all in silver armour last night when I saw you," he said gently, "like an image of Diana." The colour came then in soft waves to her cheeks and beat there; her gaze seemed locked in his and could not get away.
"Diana was a horrid and cruel divinity, I like her least of any of them; Venus was kinder," she murmured.