He was inclined to laugh at her fears, and bent again to kiss her upon the cheek.
“Take no heed of such unpleasant forebodings,” he exclaimed cheerily. “I, too, sometimes look upon the darker side of things, yet of late I’ve come to the conclusion that it is utterly useless to meet trouble half-way. Sufficient the day when misfortune falls.”
“But surely we ought always to try and evade it?”
“If you are foredoomed to misfortune, it cannot be evaded,” he declared.
“That is exactly my argument,” she replied. “I feel that one day ere long a dark shadow, perhaps of suspicion, I know not what, will fall between us.”
“And that we shall be parted!” he cried, starting. “You are certainly cheerful to-day.” And he smiled.
“I ought to be, after your lovely present,” she said, touching the pearls upon her neck with her white hand. “But I confess to you, dearest, I am not. I am too supremely happy, and for that reason alone I dread lest it may pass as all things in our life pass, and leave only bitter regrets and sad disappointments behind.”
“You speak in enigmas, Jean,” he said, bending earnestly to her again. “Tell me what really distresses you. Do you fear something real and tangible, or is it only some vague foreboding?”
“The latter,” she responded. “I seem always to see a grim, dark shadow stretched before my path.”
Bracondale remained silent in wonder for some time.