He held her very close, and she felt the strength of his great arms. The breath seemed to go out of her body, her eyes were closed.
“Now, let me go.”
He released her, and she stepped back just a little unsteadily, but trying to smile.
“Good-bye! Go back now.”
She turned, went out of the wood, and crossed the moonlit road. It lay between them like some dim river of the underworld. And Canterton was left standing in the gloom of the fir woods.
CHAPTER XX
NIGHT AND A CHILD
Eve relocked the door of the cottage, and stood in the darkness of the hall, trying to realise all that had happened.
It was like coming back out of a dream, save that the dream remained as a compelling and fateful reality, a power, a parting of the ways, a voice that cried “Explicit!” Her clarity of vision returned as she stood there in the darkness. There was only one thing to be done, whatever anguish the doing of it might cause her.