Part 33 (2/2)
He had discovered a reason She asked herself breathlessly whatherself no answer to the question, she put it next to hi ”May I sit with you awhile, Cynthia?”
She h the broad cliff had been a narrow ledge, and with the sigh of a weary -place at last, he sank down beside her
There was a tenderness in his voice that set her pulses stirring wildly
Did she guess aright the reason that had caused him to break his journey and return? That he had done so--no matter what the reason--she thanked God from her inmost heart, as for ahim in London town
”Am I presumptuous, child, to think that haply the meditation in which I found you rapt was for one, unworthy though he be, ent hence but souous question drove every thought froood of his presence, and the frantic hope that she had read aright the reason of it
”Have I conjectured rightly?” he asked, since she kept silence
”Mayhap you have,” she whispered in return, and then, lanced sharply at her fro eyes It was not the answer he had looked to hear
As a father ht have done he took the slender hand that rested upon the grass beside his of that action, suffered it to lie in his strong grasp With averted head she gazed upon the sea below, until a mist of tears rose up to blot it out The breeze seeood to her, and sent her in her hour of need this great consolation--a consolation indeed that must have served to efface whatever sorrow could have beset her
”Why then, sweet lady, is ht with difficulty, grown easy indeed”
And hearing him pause:
”What task is that, Sir Crispin?” she asked, intent on helping him
He did not reply at once He found it difficult to devise an answer
To tell her brutally that he was co, on behalf of another, was not easy Indeed, it was ilad that inclinations in her which he had little dreamt of, put the necessity aside
”My task, Mistress Cynthia, is to bear you hence To ask you to resign this peaceful life, this quiet hoo forth to bear life's hardshi+ps with one hatever be his shortcoht else in life”
He gazed intently at her as he spoke, and her eyes fell before his glance He noted the war her cheeks, her brow, her very neck; and he could have laughed aloud for joy at finding so simple that which he had feared would prove so hard Some pity, too, crept unaccountably into his stern heart, fathered by the little faith which in his inmost soul he reposed in Jocelyn And where, had she resisted hirown harsh and violent, her acquiescence struck the weapons froainst acco him
”It is much to ask,” he said ”But love is selfish, and love asks much”
”No, no,” she protested softly, ”it is not much to ask Rather is it hast Yet he continued:
”Bethink you, Mistress Cynthia, I have ridden back to Sheringham to ask you to coot for the norance of his relationshi+p to hiave this mention of his son, of whose existence she had already heard froht at that s that touched her more nearly
”I ask you to abandon the ease and peace of Sheringhah and precarious for a while, though, truth to tell, I have so, and friends upon whose assistance I can safely count, to find your husband honourable euided by so sweet a saint, can he but mount to fa in his entwined his fingers in an answering pressure
”Dare I then ask so uity which had h, he erness towards her until her brown tresses touched his swart cheek Was it then strange that the eagerness ith he urged another's suit should have been by her interpreted as her heart would have had it?