Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/186

 him, even credited her with a sophistication that would allow her to find amusement in the ease with which she had evaded his importunities and escaped from a situation which, as he told himself savagely, might easily have produced different results. By the time he descended to breakfast he had worked himself into an extremely ugly mood.

But later, after a hard gallop through the Park, the soft, warm kindliness of the spring morning worked a change. He recalled her words and the brave timidity with which she had spoken, her face across the table, above the pink and white of the flowers, her eyes with the stars reflected in them. He closed his own eyes and heard again the sudden leap of passion in her voice as she had whispered, "I do! Oh, I do!" there in the black shadows of the corner; felt the ghost of that kiss on his mouth. He threw his shoulders back and drew a long breath of the scented air. He was glad, immeasurably glad that it had all happened as it had. She loved him, she was his and in her own time she would come to him under no compulsion save that of her own heart. And then, God helping him, she should never have a moment of regret.