Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/186

162 He started from his chair at the words, but controlled himself and sat down again.

“Do you mean that you want to break it off?” he demanded, in a quivering voice. “Do you mean that you can possibly care for that”

She turned upon him with blazing eyes.

“Do you insult me, too?”

For an instant he sat motionless as stone; then he fell at her knees and caught her hands and covered them with kisses.

“Forgive me!” he cried. “Forgive me! It was unworthy. But, oh, Grace, give me a word—just a word—tell me”

“Listen,” she said, bending over him, instantly moved, instantly tender; “you told me last night that you trusted me.”

“I do with my whole soul.”

“And Kate the Queen needs you, as she said she would. Only I must have time to think; to straighten out the tangle. Tomorrow I will tell you—to-morrow night-till then”

He seized her and drew her down to him and kissed her on the lips.

“I’ve never doubted you,” he said. “And I’ll fight the battle of my life before I give you up.”

At the farther end of the hall, a door closed very, very softly.