"To live?"
"Yes." Miss Mallory explained what Dictator Jaffier had done for her, adding:
"It was all Mr. Bedient's doing…. You see what I mean, about the wonderful things that happen to others—where he is…. Yet I would rather have that picture of him you painted—than all Equatoria—but even that should not belong to one——"
"You love him then?" Beth asked softly.
"I dared that at first, but I didn't understand. He is too big to belong that way…. I would rather be a servant in his house—than the wife of any other man I ever knew. I am that—in thought—and I shall be near him!"
After a moment, Beth heard the silence—and drew her thoughts back to the hour. She seemed to have gone to the utmost pavilions of tragedy—far beyond the sources of tears—where only the world's strongest women may venture. The Shadowy Sister was there…. Beth had come back with humility, which she could not reveal.
The dusk was closing about them.
"You have been good to come—good to tell me these things," Beth said. "Some time I shall paint a little copy of the portrait for you. I'm sure he would be glad."