TELLS HOW RAVENSLEE BROKE HIS WORD AND WHY
"Past eleven o'clock, dear," said Hermione.
"Still so early?" sighed Ravenslee.
They were sitting alone in the fire glow, so near that by moving his
hand he could touch her where she sat curled up in the great armchair;
but he did not reach out his hand because they were alone and in the
fire glow, and Hermione had never seemed quite so alluring.
"How cosy a fire is--and how unnecessary!" she sighed contentedly.
"I'm English enough to love a fire, especially when it is unnecessary,"
he answered.
"English, dear?"
"My mother was English; that's why I was educated in England."
"Your mother! How she must have loved you!"
"I suppose she did; but, you see, she died when I was a baby."
"Poor lonely mite!" Here her hand came out impulsively to caress his
coat sleeve and to be prisoned there by two other hands, to be lifted
and pressed to burning lips, whereat she grew all rosy in the fire glow.
"I suppose," said he, the words coming a little unevenly, "it would be
too much to ask my wife to--come a little--nearer?"
"Nearer? Why, Geoffrey, dear, our chairs are touching now."
"Our chairs? Why, yes--so they are! I suppose," sighed he, "I suppose it
would be breaking my word to my wife if I happened to--kiss my wife?"
"Why, Geoffrey--of course it would!"
"Yes, I feared so!" he nodded and kissed her hand instead, and there
fell a silence.
"How heavenly it is!" she whispered softly, leaning a little nearer to
him.
"Heavenly!" he answered, leaning a little nearer to her and watching the
droop of her lashes.
"So--so quiet and--peaceful!" she added, drawing away again, conscious
of his look.
"Horribly!" he sighed.
"Geoffrey!"
"Quiet and peace," he explained, "may hold such an infinitude of
possibilities impossible of realisation to a husband who is bound by
promises, that it is apt to be a little--trying."
Hermione didn't speak but drew his hand to be caressed by the soft oval
of a cheek and touched by the velvet of shy lips.
"And yet," he went on, staring resolutely at the fire, "I wouldn't
change--this, for anything else the world could offer me!"
"Bear with me--a little longer, dear!" she murmured.
"As long as you will, Hermione--providing--"
"Well, my Geoffrey, dear?"
"That it is only--a little longer."
"You don't think I'm very--silly, do you, dear?" she enquired, staring
into the fire.
"No, not very!"
"Oh!" she said softly, glancing at him reproachfully. "You don't think
me--cruel?"
"Not very," he answered, kissing her hand again.
"Dear Geoffrey, you don't think I'm very selfish, do you?" she
questioned wistfully.
"No--never that!" he answered, keeping his gaze averted.
"Because if--"
"If?" said he.
"If it is hard for you--" the soft voice faltered.
"Yes, Hermione?"
"If you really think I'm--cruel and--silly, you--needn't wait--any
longer--if you wish--"
His arms were about her, drawing her near, clasping her ever closer,
and she held him away no more, but--beholding her wistful eyes, the
plaintive droop of her vivid mouth, and all the voiceless pleading of
her, he loosed her and turned away.
"I love you so much--Hermione, so much, that your will shall be my
will."
She rose, and leaning against the carved mantel stared down into the
fire; when at last she spoke, there was a note in her voice he had never
heard before,
"Geoffrey, dear, this world is a very bad world for a lonely girl, and
sometimes a very hateful world, and I have been lonely nearly all my
life--and I didn't think there were such men as you; I didn't think any
man could love so unselfishly. All my life I shall--treasure the
recollection of this hour--yes, always! always!"
Then she turned and, ere he knew, was on her knees before him, had
twined soft arms about his neck, and was looking up at him through
shining tears.
"Yes, I'm--crying a little! I don't do it often, dear--tears don't
easily come with me. But now I'm crying because--oh, because I'm so
proud--so proud to have won such a wonderful love. Good night--good
night! Oh, break your word for once--kiss me, my husband!"
So while she knelt to him thus, he kissed her until she sighed and
stirred in his embrace. Then she rose and hand in hand they crossed the
room and he opened the door; for a blissful moment they stood there
silent in the shadows, but when he would have kissed her again she
laughed at him through her tears and fled from him up the wide stairway.