"Evangeline, darling," he pleaded. "Oh, why will you make us both unhappy?
Tell me, at least."
"Your brother, the duke," I said, very low. "He will never consent to your
marrying a person like me, with no relations."
He was silent for a second, then: "My brother is an awfully good fellow,"
he said; "but his mind is warped by his infirmity. You must not think
hardly of him; he will love you directly he sees you, like every one
else."
"I saw him yesterday," I said.
Robert was so astonished.
"Where did you see him?" he asked.
Then I told him about meeting Lady Merrenden, and her asking me to
luncheon, and about her having been in love with papa, and about the duke
having looked me through and through with an expression of dislike.
"Oh, I see it all," said Robert, holding me closer. "Aunt Sophia and I are
great friends, you know; she has always been like my mother, who died when
I was a baby. I told her all about you when I came from Branches, and how
I had fallen deeply in love with you at first sight, and that she must
help me to see you at Tryland; and she did, and then I thought you had
grown to dislike me, so when I came back she guessed I was unhappy about
something, and this is her first step to find out how she can do me a good
turn. Oh, she is a dear!"
"Yes, indeed, she is," I said.
"Of course she is extra interested in you if she was in love with your
father. So that is all right, darling; she must know all about your
family, and can tell Torquilstone. Why, we have nothing to fear!"
"Oh yes, we have," I said. "I know all the story of what your brother is
_toqué_ about. Lady Ver told me. You see, the awkward part is mamma was
really nobody; her father and mother forgot to get married, and although
mamma was lovely and had been beautifully brought up by two old ladies at
Brighton, it was a disgrace for papa marrying her. Mrs. Carruthers has
often taunted me with this."
"Darling!" he interrupted, and began to kiss me again, and that gave me
such feeling I could not collect my thoughts to go on with what I was
saying for a few minutes. We both were rather silly, if it is silly to be
madly, wildly happy, and oblivious of everything else.
"I will go straight to Aunt Sophia now, when I take you back to
Claridge's," he said, presently, when we had got a little calmer.
I wonder what kisses do that it makes one have that perfectly lovely
sensation down the back, just like certain music does, only much, much
more so. I thought they would be dreadful things when it was a question of
Christopher, but Robert! Oh, well, as I said before, I can't think of any
other heaven.
"What time is it?" I had sense enough to ask presently.
He lit a match and looked at his watch.
"Ten minutes past five," he exclaimed.
"And Christopher was coming about four," I said; "and if you had not
chanced to meet me in the park by now I should have been engaged to him,
and probably trying to bear his kissing me."
"My God!" said Robert, fiercely; "it makes me rave to think of it," and he
held me so tight for a moment I could hardly breathe.
"You won't have any one else's kisses ever again in this world, and that I
tell you," he said, through his teeth.
"I--I don't want them," I whispered creeping closer to him. "And I never
have had any, never any one but you, Robert."
"Darling," he said, "how that pleases me!"
Of course, if I wanted to I could go on writing pages and pages of all the
lovely things we said to each other, but it would sound, even to read to
myself, such nonsense that I can't, and I couldn't make the tone of
Robert's voice, or the exquisite fascination of his ways--tender, and
adoring, and masterful. It must all stay in my heart, but oh! it is as if
a fairy with a wand had passed and said "bloom" to a winter tree. Numbers
of emotions that I had never dreamed about were surging through me--the
floodgates of everything in my soul seemed opening in one rush of love and
joy. While we were together nothing appeared to matter, all barriers
melted away.
Fate would be sure to be kind to lovers like us.
We got back to Claridge's about six, and Robert would not let me go up to
my sitting-room until he had found out if Christopher had gone.
Yes, he had come at four, we discovered, and had waited twenty minutes,
and then left, saying he would come again at half-past six.
"Then you will write him a note, and give it to the porter for him, saying
you are engaged to me and can't see him," Robert said.
"No, I won't do that. I am not engaged to you, and cannot be until your
family consent and are nice to me," I said.
"Darling!" he faltered, and his voice trembled with emotion. "Darling,
love is between you and me--it is our lives. However, that can go. The
ways of my family--nothing shall ever separate you from me or me from you,
I swear it! Write to Christopher."