When Agnes returned in a couple of hours, she found the girl, not in the studio, but in the drawingroom. The wintry twilight had almost dwindled away. The room was nearly dark. The gleam of a white handkerchief drew her eyes to the sofa, upon which Clare was lying, her face upon one of the cushions.
“Why, what on earth is the matter?” she cried. “Why are you lying there? What--tears?”
Clare sprang to her feet, touched her eyes once more with her handkerchief, and then flung it away. In another instant she was in Agnes's arms.
“Oh, my dearest,” she cried, “I am only crying because I am so happy. Never was any one so happy before since the beginning of the world. He has been here.”
“Of course. Who else was there to come? Who else is worth talking about in the world? He has been here, and he loves me--he loves me--he loves me! Only think of it.”
“Not until I had told him all that was in my heart.”
“You told him that you loved another man?”
“How could I do that? How could I tell him a falsehood? I told him that I loved him; that I had always loved him, and that it would be impossible for me to love any one else.”
|NOW you know why it is I was crying,” said Clare, and as she spoke she laughed. “Oh, I am crying because I am the happiest girl in the world,” she continued. “Was there ever any one so fortunate in the world? I don't believe it. I thought that the idea of my hoping that he would ever come to love me was too ridiculous--and it is ridiculous, you know, when you think of it--when you think of me--me--a mere nobody--and of him--him--the man whose name is in every one's mouth. Ah! I think it must be some curious dream--no, I feel that I have read something like it somewhere--there is a memory of King Cophetua in the story. Was he here--was he really here? Why do you stare at me in that way? Ah, I suppose you think that I have suddenly gone mad? Well, I don't blame you. The whole story sounds absurd, doesn't it?”
Agnes had taken a step or two back from the girl and was gazing at her. The expression that was on her face as she gazed had something of amazement in it and something of fear. Her lips moved as if she were trying to speak; but at first her words failed to come. When, at last, they became audible, there was a gasp between each word.