Monica glanced up at him, a world of loving confidence in her eyes; yet the clinging clasp of her hands tightened upon his arm. He fancied she trembled a little.
She pressed a little more closely towards him.
“Randolph, do you think he will try to hurt you now—try to do you some injury?”
“Oh, I don’t know; but he has spoken such cruel, wicked words. He said he had vowed to ruin our happiness—he looked as if he meant it—so vindictive, so terrible!” she shivered a little.
He took her hands, and held them in his warm, strong clasp.
“Are you afraid of what that bad man says, Monica—a man who is a coward and a scoundrel of the deepest dye? Are you afraid of idle threats from his lips? How could he ruin our happiness now?”
She looked up at him, still with a sort of undefined trouble in her eyes.
“He might hurt you, Randolph,” she half whispered. “What hurts you, hurts me. If—if—he were to take you away from me——”
Randolph laid his hand smilingly upon her lips.
“My darling, you are unnerved by the fright he gave you. When was Monica troubled by idle fears before?”
“I don’t know what I fear, Randolph; but I have feelings sometimes—premonitions, presentiments, and I cannot shake them off. Ever since Conrad came, I felt a kind of horror of him, even though I tried to call him friend. Sometimes I think it must mean something.”
“No doubt it does,” answered Randolph. “It is the natural shrinking of your pure soul from his evil, vicious nature. I can well understand it. It could hardly be otherwise. He could not deceive you long.”
“No, I do not think he really deceived me long—not my innermost self of all. But I was very self-willed. I wanted to judge for myself, and I could not judge him rightly. I believed him. I did not want to be unjust—and he deceived me.”
Randolph smiled and laid his hand caressingly upon her shoulder. She looked up with a smile.
“That is right, Monica. You must put away these sad, wistful looks. We must not let this evening’s happiness be marred by any doubts and fears. You have your husband again. Is not that enough?”
She turned and laid her head against his shoulder. His arm was fast about her in a moment. She drew a long breath, almost like a sigh.
“Randolph, I think that moments like this must be a foretaste of heaven.”