"I mean," she said, gathering courage, "if--if I had known that it meant
just that, I--well, I shouldn't have minded so much."
Still Piet was silent. His hand shaded his eyes, but she knew that he was
watching her.
"Do you understand?" she asked him doubtfully.
"No," he said.
"Don't you--don't you know what I want you to do?" she said, rather
Breathlessly.
"No," he said again.
"Must I--tell you?" she asked, with a gasp.
"I think you must," he said, in his grave way.
She lifted her head abruptly. Her eyes were very big and shining. She
stretched her hands out to him with a little, quivering laugh.
"I hate you for making me say it!" she declared, with a vehemence half
passionate, half whimsical. "Piet, I--I want you--to--to--take me in your
arms again, and--and--kiss me--as you did--that night."
The last words were uttered from his breast, though she never knew how
she came to be there. It was as though a whirlwind had caught her away
from the earth into a sunlit paradise that was all her own--a paradise in
which fear had no place. And the chain against which she had chafed so
long and bitterly had turned to links of purest gold.
* * * * *
The Consolation Prize
"So you don't want to marry me?" said Earl Wyverton.
He said it by no means bitterly. There was even the suggestion of a smile
on his clean-shaven face.
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