Part 21 (1/2)
”Well, well, forget, then, _if you can_. As for me, remembrance will be my sole joy.”
”It is madness, Marian, to talk to me like this. What is to be gained by it?”
”Why, nothing, nothing, and so let us forget; let us begin again as true friends only.”
”There is no hope of that,” says he.
His voice is a mere whisper.
”Oh yes, there is--there,” eagerly, _”must_ be. What! Would you throw me over altogether, Maurice? Oh, that I _could_ not bear! Why should we not be as brother and sister to each other? Yes, yes,”
vehemently; ”tell me it shall be so. You will ask me to your new house, Maurice, won't you?”
She is looking up into his face, her hand still pressing his arm.
”My wife's house.”
”Your wife's house is yours, is it not? You owe yourself something from this marriage. You will ask me there now and then?”
”She will ask her own guests, I suppose.”
”She will ask whom _you_ choose. Pah! what is she but a child in your hands?”
”t.i.ta is not the cipher you describe her,” says Rylton coldly.
”No, no; I spoke wrongly--I am always wrong, it seems to me,” says she, with such sweet contrition that she disarms him again. ”I cannot live if I cannot see you sometimes, and, besides, you _know_ what my life is here, and how few are the houses I can go to, and”--she slips her arms suddenly round his neck--”you _will_ ask me sometimes, Maurice?”
”Yes.”
”You promise that?”
”I promise that, as far as it lies in my power, I will always befriend you.”
”Ah, that is not enough,” says she, laughing and sobbing in the same breath. ”I am losing you for ever. Give me something to dwell upon, to hope for. Swear you will make me your guest sometimes.”
”I swear it,” says he huskily.
He removes her arms from his neck, and holds her from him. His face is gray.
”It is for the sake of our old _friends.h.i.+p_ that I plead,” says she.
The tears are running down her cheeks.
”Our friends.h.i.+p,” repeats he, with a groan.
He makes a movement as if to fling her from him, then suddenly catches her to his heart, and presses his lips pa.s.sionately to hers.