Page:Magician 1908.djvu/158

 The music was beautiful. There was about it a staid sad dignity; and it seemed to Margaret fit thus to adore the God of the Church. But it did not move her. She could not understand the words that these priests chanted; their gestures, their movements to and fro, were strange to her. For her that stately service had no meaning. And with a great cry in her heart she said that God had forsaken her. She was alone in a strange land. Evil was all about her, and in those ceremonies she could find no comfort. What could she expect when the God of her fathers left her to her fate? So that she might not weep in front of all those people, Margaret with down-turned face, walked to the door. She felt now utterly lost. As she walked along the interminable street that led to her own house she was shaken with sobs.

“God has forsaken me,” she repeated. “God has forsaken me.”

Next day, her eyes red with weeping, she dragged herself to Haddo’s door. When he opened it she went in without a word. She sat down, and he watched her in silence.

“I am willing to marry you whenever you choose,” she said, at last.

“I have made all the necessary arrangements.”

“You have spoken to me of your mother. Will you take me to her at once.”

The shadow of a smile crossed his lips.

“If you wish it.”

Haddo told her that they could be married before the Consul early enough on the Thursday morning