Footsteps moved away from the door, and down the stairs.
Then there was silence.
Regina sprang to her feet, every muscle within her shaking, every pulse throbbing with exasperation.
Only one instinct moved her now: to escape, to get away from this hateful place, that called itself her home, to get away from this atmosphere of tyranny, that called itself religion, to get away from this licentiousness of cruelty and ignorance, that called itself purity.
She turned to her handbag and packed it rapidly, with cold, trembling fingers. Then put on a hat and veil, and threw her cloak over her arm; for an instant she stood before her mirror, and looked in; the beautiful rose and white skin, the masses of soft hair, framed in her large black summer hat, pleased her; the luminous eyes, large now with excitement and pain, shadowed with apprehension of the unknown, to which she was going, looked back at her; but, dark as the waters of Life might be before her, vague and uncertain and mysterious, she felt all the danger and evil that might lie in that treacherous sea could not equal the horror of the stagnant harbour from which she was setting out.
She turned from the glass and paused, listening: the dinner-gong sounded harshly through the house; when its echoes died away the sound of plates being carried and doors opened and shut came to her faintly. The family had gone in to dine on the stalled ox, with hatred.
She opened her door and passed noiselessly, unnoticed, down the stairs. How glad she felt that never again would she have to sit down to that depressing, grumbling, bickering, recriminatory meal! Softly she opened the hall door, and went out into the sweet, warm evening.
It seemed to welcome her, enfold her, soothe her. She glanced up at the deep rose of the light-filled sky and thought how sweetly it must be arching over the enchanted garden.
Never again might she see it perhaps, but its influence would be with her all her life. Its peace and beauty, its mystery, the holy love she had felt there, the hours of rapture she had known there, had all moulded her soul and stamped on it an impress that could never be effaced.