Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/251

240 glance sought the gloom of the cavera's recesses, as a hunted stag's seeks the haunts of the forest whence his hunters may spríng. She had said that she would keep truth both to her tyrant and to her saviour; she had said that she iwould never again touch with hers the hand of the man whom her caress would betray; she had no intent but to be faithful to both bonds. But she had not looked for the ordeal of the actual presence, of the visible torture, of him whom she had consented to forsake; she had no courage to face these; she had taken no thought of how to bid him know their divorce was absolute and eternal. She was usurped by the one knowledge of the jeopardy his life was in whilst near him was the criminal who before had sought it—the criminal she had sworn to screen.

His eyes softened with an infinite yearning as he saw her; it was not in him to harbour doubt whilst pity could be needed; his nature was long-suffering and blindly generous; he only remembered that this anguish was for his sake, and was beyond his aid. He forgot all else, with that noble oblivion of a mind that takes no thought for itself. He stooped and strove to lift her up to his embrace. "Why have you left me? What is it on you? If danger, I share it; if evil, I pardon it."