She did not move from him, only looked up with all the fires of the sunset in her eyes. The face that she would have chosen out of all the world hung just above her; the man that she would have chosen out of all the world was there beside her, seeking her. She had no other thought than to please him, to yield to his empire. At any cost, at any sacrifice of herself, at the price of her life, if necessary, she was dedicated, consecrated to him; worship, adoration was in her face and in her heart as she looked up at him. It is the spontaneous impulse in all virgin love, and those women who have not felt it for their lovers have missed love's soul.
Everest bent down and kissed her, and in all her after years Regina could never recall a higher pinnacle of joy to which she had climbed than was reached in that first kiss. The very purity of it, the first expression of her whole ardent, unstained soul, the etherealised emotions of awe and wonder of devotion that went through it, lifted it out of the range of earthly things. Regina's kiss, full of passionate enthusiasm as it was, was still like the burning kiss of the young nun upon her rosary, as the strains of the anthem bear away her soul to heaven. Everest understood her perfectly, practised as he was in these matters, and being himself of that sensitive timbre that made him respond easily to and comprehend every grade of varying emotion in another.
People had called him dissipated and reckless, simply because he had always been unconventional and lived according to the laws of his own conscience instead of the laws of the world. But all his pleasures had been of the refined and delicate order, things of the mind and soul as well as the body—the pleasures of the wild poetic Celtic nature rather than of the coarse and brutal Saxon. The mere wallowing of the body in physical indulgence, whether of drunkenness, overeating, or other vice, was unknown to him. The excitable brain, the refined and sensitive mind, in his case must be charmed and captured before pleasure could begin.
It was to these that Regina in her innocent and unveiled admiration so appealed, and his touch was very tender and gentle as he drew her wholly into his arms up against his breast, and the girl yielded, silent, submerged in that overwhelming first delight of love, that no after one can wholly surpass. So they stood for a few minutes in the light, both feeling the happiness of the world was absolutely complete.
Then the man relaxed his clasp suddenly and put her away from his arms in the same decisive way he had drawn her into them. His face was very pale and set as he turned from her and leaned over the balustrade, looking away to the gorgeous fires of the west.
Regina stood quite silent, passive, shaken with happiness, voiceless.
He had put her away from him, swept over by some feeling she did not understand, but she yielded to that as obediently as when he had drawn her to him. It was a delight to watch him, and her fascinated eyes strayed over him as he leant beside her; and behind him, growing deeper and fiercer every moment, burned the red flare of the sunset.
After a long silence, in which Regina had studied the fine outline of his head and neck, the small ear, the dear arm in the light grey sleeve, the fine linen of the cuff enclosing the smooth and supple wrist, he said:
"I should be so interested in your paintings, when may I see them?"