Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/81

70 him. Then, holding her hands against his heart, be looked down on her with that graver and more chastened tenderness which, mingled with the vivid ardour of his love, born from the darkness of danger that was still around them, and from the defence that through it she, so brilliant, so fearless, and so negligent, had come to need from his strength and from his fealty. In her intellect, in her ambitions, in her carelessness and her magníficence, he was content that she should reign far beyond him, content to know that she reached many realms which he had barely dreamed of; but in her necessity, in her peril, in her desolation, he took up his title as a man to guard her, his right as a man to shield her, and to save her, if it should need be, even from herself.

"We will speak no more of that; our fates, whatever they be, will be the same," he answered her.

"It may be that I shall suffer through you, as you say; if so, it will be without complaint while I can still be dear to you. If death come—well; it had little terror for us last night—it will have none for me, if it be only merciful enough to spare me life without you. As for faith—believe enough in me to know that no trial will exhaust it. If silence be bound on you, I will wait till you can break it with