Part 32 (1/2)
”It seemed as if I should never get here,” he said, in the same husky tones. ”Oh! how impatient I have been to look into your dear eyes.”
”If you had missed this train you would not have got here for your Christmas dinner,” she said, artlessly, ”and that would have been horribly disappointing.”
”Would you have been very much disappointed?” he questioned, trying to throw a note of tenderness into his voice.
”Of course, I should have been disappointed,” she answered, frankly; ”I've been quite consumed with curiosity to see what you look like.”
”Not with curiosity only, I hope, Madeline.”
”Why, isn't curiosity bad enough without having any other feeling to torment you?”
”Did you think I should have changed toward you?” he said, in hurt tones. ”Did you regard me as one of the fickle mob, who hold love so lightly?”
”Nay, I have always regarded you as a brave, strong man who would place duty above everything.”
”In that, I trust, I shall never disappoint you,” he said, humbly.
”Henceforth my duty and my joy shall be to serve you.”
”I am only one,” she said, quickly. ”Is not your first duty to your country and your King?”
”My first duty is to my queen,” he answered gallantly, ”and that is you.”
She drew her hands from his suddenly, and stepped back a pace. ”Had we not better understand each other better before we talk so confidently?”
she said, in hard decided tones.
”What, after three long years?” he questioned, in an aggrieved voice.
”Is it possible that there is anything left unexplained? Have I not opened all my heart to you in my letters? Do I need still to prove my devotion?”
”No, no. You have been very candid and very loyal,” she said, quickly.
”But a matter of so much importance should not be decided in an hour.”
”But we have known each other for years, and did we not understand each other from the very beginning?”
”Perhaps we did,” she answered, with downcast eyes.
”And everyone else understood,” he went on. ”It is true little or nothing was said at the beginning, for you--you--were--were--very young.
But I was of full age, and when the proper time came I wrote plainly to you.”
”Yes, I know.”
”And you were not surprised? You expected I should write in that way, did you not?”
”Yes, I think I did.”
”And yet now you talk of our understanding each other better. Oh, Madeline! Let me a.s.sure you that no other woman has crossed my path, that no other face has caught my fancy, that my heart has been true to you from the first, and I am prepared now to devote the rest of my life to you.”
”But is there not another side to the question?” she asked, seriously.