"
"'Tis impossible! Tis hours--"
"'Tis not impossible--I will outride them. They wouldn't have started
before dark."
"You would only overtake them, at your best. Do you think they would
let you pass?"
"Poh! I know every road. I can ride around them. I'll put the army in
readiness for 'em, treason or no treason! For the present, good-bye--"
The look in his face--of power and resolution--gave her a sudden sense
of her triumph slipping out of her grasp.
"You must not go!" she cried, quite awakened to the peril of the
situation to her enterprise.
"I must! Good-bye! One kiss, I beg!"
"But you sha'n't go!" As he came close to her, she clasped him tightly
with both arms. She made no attempt to avoid his kiss, and he, taking
this for acquiescence, bestowed the kiss upon unresponsive lips.
"Now let me go," said he, turning to stride toward the door by which
he had entered from the rear chamber.
"No, no! Stay. Time to win back my love, you said. Take the time now.
You may find me not so difficult of winning back. Nay, I have never
ceased to love you, at the bottom of my heart. I love you now. You
shall stay."
"I must not, I dare not. Oh, I would to God I could believe you! But
whether 'tis true, or a device to keep me here, I will not stay. Let
me go!"
"I will not! You will have to force me from you, first! I tell you I
love you--my husband!"
"If you love me, you will let me go.
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