It would make talk and gossip in the village, but he did not see how he could help it.
Sooner or later he would have to meet John Marlow's inquiries about his daughter, and he wished from the very beginning to have had no deception, nor concealment of his own actions. He sent the message and rejoined the waiting girl.
It was too late for diners, and still early for supper-parties, so that the restaurant, when they entered it, was nearly empty.
Everest chose a quiet corner by a sheltering palm and screen, and the girl sank down on the velvet-covered seat, beneath the rose-shaded light, with a feeling of soothed contentment. It is a great thing to come unexpectedly to one we love, and find ourselves utterly and wholly and delightfully welcome. She saw this was so. She felt in every fibre of her being the reflex action of the passionate electric joy that was animating the man opposite her, under his quiet exterior. A warm colour glowed in his clear skin; the dark eyes were full of life and fire; he smiled a little, unconsciously, whenever he looked at her. He was so tender and kind and devoted, so full of all that curious magnetic charm that passion, when not thwarted, checked, too far repressed, or in any way distorted, confers upon the male. She felt borne on a tide of deep, peaceful happiness; she seemed to be floating gently on that warm and buoyant flood. She was with him, and he loved and wanted her, and nothing else in the world mattered.
Everest ordered a delicate little supper for them, and made her drink, in champagne, the health of her new picture, which was to start to-morrow.
The colour crept back to her face, and fresh strength into her limbs. The beautiful emotions of grateful love and trust and joy were rapidly mending the great rents that hate and evil had torn in her system.
"Are you feeling better now?" he asked, as they finished their coffee, gazing at her. She looked very sweet, very youthful and appealing, he thought, her face shadowed by the large hat, in the soft light. The pain and excitement she had been through had lent a look of spiritual delicacy to her face, widened the eyes, dilating enormously the pupils. The skin was pale and very clear, the lips a bright line of scarlet.
"Are you ready? Shall we go home now?"
Regina gazed back at him, a sudden wonder on her face.
"How nice that sounds, when you say it—home; and I have always so hated the word!"