"I will tell you everything, at the risk of making you angry, at the
risk of your--sending me away."
He paused for a moment, as if he were choosing his words with a care
that sprang from his fear lest he should indeed rouse her anger
and--lose her.
"The first day I saw you--you remember?"
As if she could forget! She knew as he asked the question that no
trifling detail of that first meeting was forgotten, that every word
was engraven on her memory.
"When I saw you riding down the hill, I thought I had never seen any
girl so beautiful, so lovely--"
The colour rose slowly to her face, but died away again: the least vain
of women is moved when a man tells her she is beautiful--in his eyes,
at any rate.
"And when you spoke to me I thought I had never heard so sweet a voice;
and if I had, that there had never been one that I so longed to hear
again. You were not with me long, only a few minutes, but when I left
you and trumped over the hill to the inn I could not get you out of my
mind. I wondered who you were, and whether I should see you again." The
horses moved, and instinctively she looked over her shoulder towards
them.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231