Part 29 (1/2)

Hearing the sound, yet not knowing whence it came, he stopped again, and so gave Annesley time to open the window.

”Knight!” she called, softly.

Then he came straight to her across the strip of lawn and up the two steps that led to the loggia. She met him on the threshold and saw his face deadly pale in the moonlight. Perhaps it was only an effect of light, but she thought that he looked tired, even ill. Still he did not speak.

”Knight, you almost frightened me!” she said. ”I was afraid for an instant you might be--might be----”

”A thief!” he finished for her.

”Or a ghost,” she amended. ”Weren't you coming in?”

”No,” he said. ”I hadn't thought of it. Do you want--shall I come in?”

”Yes, please do. I--I've been waiting for you.”

”I'm sorry! I hoped you'd have gone to bed. But I might have known you wouldn't.”

As she retreated from the window, he followed her, as if reluctantly, into the room.

”Shall I draw the curtains?” he asked. There was weariness in his voice, as in his face. Annesley's heart went out to her beloved sinner with even more tenderness than before.

”No, let's talk in the moonlight,” she answered. ”Oh, Knight, I _am_ glad you've come! I began to think you never would!”

”Did you? That's not strange, for I was saying to myself that same thing.”

”What same thing? I don't understand.”

”That I--well, that I never ought to come to you again.”

She sank down on a low sofa near the window, and looked up to him as he stood tall and straight, seeming to tower over her like one of the pine trees out there under the moon.

”Oh, Knight!” she faltered. ”It's not--so bad as that!”

”Isn't it?” he caught her up sharply, eagerly. ”Do you mean what you say?

Isn't it, to you--as bad as that?”

”No--no,” she soothed him. ”You see, I love you. That's all the difference, isn't it? You've been everything to me. You've made my life--that used to be so gray--so bright, so sweet. Only the blackest thing--oh, an unimaginably blackest thing!--could come between us, or----”

Before she could finish, he was on his knees at her feet, holding her in his arms, crus.h.i.+ng her against his breast, soft and yielding in her light dressing-gown, with her flowing hair.

”My G.o.d, Annesley, it's too good to be true!” he said, his breath hot on her face as he kissed her cheek, her hair, her eyes. ”You can _forgive_ me? I thought you'd go away. I thought you'd refuse to let me come near you. I was walking out there wondering how to make it easy for you--whether I could get rid of myself without scandal.”

She had been sure that he must have repented long ago, and that it would hurt him dreadfully to have her find out the thing he had done, but she had not dreamed that his self-abas.e.m.e.nt would be so complete. She put her arms around him as he held her, and pressed his head against her neck--the dear, smooth black head which she loved better than ever in this rush of pardoning pity.

”Dearest!” she whispered. ”Never, never think or speak of such a dreadful way out! Of course it was horribly wrong, and of course it was a great shock to me, but you might have known from my doing what I could to help that I didn't hate you. I said to myself there must be some excuse--some _big_ excuse. And now, if only you wouldn't mind telling me about it from the beginning, I believe it would be the best way for us both. Then I might understand.”

”You are G.o.d's own angel, Anita!” he said in a choked voice. ”You don't know how I've learned to love you, better than anything in this world or the next--if there is a next. I knew you were a saint, but I didn't know that saints forgave men like me.... Shall I really tell you from the beginning? You'll listen--and bear it? It's a long story.”

Annesley did not see why the story of his buying the historic stolen diamond and giving it to her should be so very long, even with its explanations; but she did not say this.

”I don't care how long it is,” she told him. ”But you will be tired--down on your knees----”

”I couldn't tell my story to you in any way except on my knees,” he answered. And the new humility of the man she had loved half fearfully for his daring, his defiant way of facing life, almost hurt, as his sudden pa.s.sion had startled the girl.