to be a novelty in a brain now quickened and prehensile beyond belief. And yet - but a few minutes had I knelt at the window - but a few more was it since Rattray and I had shaken hands!
Not his visitor; his prisoner, without a doubt; but alive! alive! and, neither guest nor prisoner for many hours more. 0 my love! 0 my heart’s delight! Now I knew why I was spared; to save her; to snatch her from these rascals; to cherish and protect her evermore!
All the past shone clear behind me; the dark was
from his face, but in which I heard him emptying his glass.
“What do you mean?” he whispered. “That there were other circumstances - things which haven’t got into the papers?”
“God knows there were,” I answered, my face in my hands; and, my grief brought home to me, there I sat with it in the presence