What can I do?"
"You can at least let me know where you are," answered Gilbert.
"What satisfaction shall you get from that? You cannot see me; you
cannot come to me in the ladies' camp."
"Indeed I can, and will," answered Gilbert, without the least
hesitation.
"At the risk of the Queen's displeasure?"
"At any risk."
"How strange it is!" exclaimed Beatrix, raising her eyebrows a little,
but smiling happily. "This morning you would not have risked anything
especial for the sake of finding me, but now that we have met by chance
you are ready to do anything and everything to see me again."
"Of some things," answered her companion, "one does not know how much
one wants them till they are within reach."
"And there are others which one longs for till one has them, and which
one despises as soon as they are one's own."
"What things may those be?" asked Gilbert.
"I have heard Queen Eleanor say that a husband is one of them,"
answered Beatrix, demurely, "but I dare say that she is not always
right."
Side by side the two sat in the autumn noonday, each forgetful of all
but the other, in the perfect unconsciousness of the difference their
meeting was to make in their lives from that day onward. Yet after the
first few words they did not speak again of Beatrix's father nor of
Gilbert's mother. By a common instinct they tried to lose both, in the
happiness of again finding one another.
Then, at last, a cloud passed over the sun, and Beatrix felt a little
chill that was like the breath of a coming evil while Gilbert became
suddenly very grave and thoughtful.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202