She had not seen him yet. She had had her breakfast sent to her room
when she heard he was still at the pension. She had thought certainly he
would be gone away by this time.
She knew he would not have gone away!
She stood now with Eugenia at the entrance to the Pincian, up on the
hill, by the fountain, under the ilex trees looking down over the city.
This was where their first walk together had ended.
"I think I see Mr. Crittenden just come up the Trinita steps and turning
this way," remarked Eugenia, looking in that direction.
If Marise could have stirred, she would have run away. She turned her
head and saw him coming. Although he was still so far away that she
could not make out his face, she knew by the sudden tautness of his
figure, by the spring forward of his step that he had seen her.
There he came, striding strongly towards her, as he had come to seek her
out, across the world, across all time. He looked infinitely familiar to
her, and yet infinitely different from all she had been thinking of him.
She had forgotten! What had she been imagining him?
When he drew near enough to be sure it was she, he snatched off his hat
and swung it around his head with a bright, boyish gesture of joy. The
wind ruffled his hair, the sun shone full on his bold, clear face, on
his deep eyes, on his tender, full-lipped mouth.
He was smiling at her, all his heart in his smile. He was welcoming her
back.
Marise felt a warm gush all over her body, as though her heart had
suddenly begun to beat again, as though he had welcomed her back into
life. Why, this was Neale! This was no monster to dread. If she had
seen him, only seen his face that morning, only had one look from his
eyes that both smiled and were steady ... she would never have run away.
She was not hurt at all, only frightened half to death! She was not just
a woman in love, ready to give herself up to a man. She was Marise in
love with Neale.
He had come up to them now, his breath coming fast as though he had been
running. For an instant he did not speak, taking her hand silently in
his. All that life had made of him looked out on her from his clear
eyes.
With a beating flutter, her heart sprang up from its numb torpor of
fright and spread its wings.
* * * * *
"Well, we certainly have missed you!" was what he finally said.
"I'm very glad to be back in Rome," she answered.