“You acted out your dream, as it were?” interrupted Julius a moment.
She looked at him with a touch of wonder. “I suppose so,” she said, and let go both our hands. “Only this time someone really did come in and caught me just as I seemed going out of myself--it may have been fainting, but I don’t think so, for I’m never one to faint--more like being carried off in a storm, a storm with wind and fire in it----”
“It was the ‘man’ caught you?” I asked quickly.
“The man, yes,” she continued. “I didn’t fall. He caught me just in time; but my wind was gone--gone clean out of me as though someone had knocked me down.”
She looked sharply at him. “Nothing,” she answered, “not a single word. I ran away. He frightened me. For a moment--I was that confused with remembering my dream, I suppose; so I just pushed him off and ran out here to find you both. I’d been watching you for a long time while I was mixing the dough.”
“I’m glad he was close enough to help you,” put in Julius.
“Well,” she explained, “I’ve a sort of idea he was watching me and saw the thing coming, for he’d been in and out of the kitchen for half an hour before, asking me silly questions about whether I wanted this or that, and fussing about”--she laughed at her own description--“just like an old faithful dog or something.”
“I’m glad I found you so quickly,” she concluded, “because while I was running up here I felt that something was running with me--something that was burning and rushing--like a bit of what was in the house.”
She stopped, and a shadow passed across her eyes, changing their colour to that nondescript grey tint they sometimes wore. The wonderful deep green went out of them. And for a moment there was silence that seemed to fill the entire valley. Julius watched her steadily, strong and comforting in his calmness. The valley, I felt, watched us too, something protective in its perfect stillness. All signs of agitation were gone; the wind sank down; the trees stood by in solemn rows; the very clouds moved more slowly down the calm blue sky. I watched the bosom of Mrs. LeVallon rise and fall as she recovered breath again. She put her hands up to gather in the hair at the back of her head, deftly tidying its disordered masses, and as she did so I felt her gaze draw my own with a force I could not resist. We looked into each other’s eyes for a full two minutes, no one speaking, no signs anywhere exchanged, Julius watchfully observant close beside us; and though I know not how to tell it quite, it is a fact that something passed from those clear, discerning eyes into my heart, convincing me more than any words of Julius ever could, that all he claimed about her and myself was true. She was imperial somewhere.... She had once been mine....