It could have no concern for her,--save that
long years ago he had been the best-loved friend of her best-loved
relative,--whether or no he remained lost to all the world under the
unknown name of a French Chasseur. And yet it smote her with a certain
dull, unanalyzed pain; it gave her a certain emotion of powerlessness
and of hopelessness to realize that he would remain all his years
through, until an Arab's shot should set him free, under this bondage
of renunciation, beneath this yoke of service. She stood silent long,
leaning against the oval of the casement, with the sun shed over the
glowing cashmeres that swept round her. He stood apart in silence also.
What could he say to her? His whole heart longed with an unutterable
longing to tell her the truth, and bid her be his judge between him
and his duty; but his promise hung on him like a leaden weight. He must
remain speechless--and leave her, for doubt to assail her, and for scorn
to follow it in her thoughts of him, if so they would.
Heavy as had been the curse to him of that one hour in which honor had
forbade him to compromise a woman's reputation, and old tenderness had
forbade him to betray a brother's sin, he had never paid so heavy a
price for his act as that which he paid now.
Through the yellow sunlight without, over the barren, dust-strewn
plains, in the distance there approached three riders, accompanied by
a small escort of Spahis, with their crimson burnous floating in the
autumnal wind.
Pages:
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726