You remember? It
was a vision; but an angelic vision, Most Beautiful; but one that turned
me first to stone, and then to fire. Vivien must have worn a golden
gown. And then the evening in Pont Street--the storm, when I put my arms
round you--they went round the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, it
is true, but also round my daughter. But--in that lightning flash of
time I found they were round the woman compared to my love of whom the
whole world does not matter! And I ran into the night and walked for
hours in the rain, and I think I was mad. Then I determined to go to
America. And I would have gone, God knows, but--you came, and your
unconsciousness broke me down. If you had suspected, I should have gone;
I was on my way to the Steamship Company when I met you. And then,
Hampstead--and this past week--and then you came to me here where I
work--and where I dream--ah, my beloved!"
He was very gentle in his unhoped-for happiness, and to her immense
relief he never once mentioned, or even appeared to remember, his son.
When he asked her, with the marvelling curiosity of a boy lover, when
and why she ever came to love him, she only shook her head. "I love
you," she answered, and he forgot, looking at her, to insist.
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