I said just now that you had been guilty of what would
in most people be an impertinence. Well, I will add something. In
this case, Mr. Bingham, there are circumstances which make it--a cruel
insult!"
She stopped speaking, then suddenly, without the slightest warning,
burst into passionate weeping. As she did so, the first rush of the
storm passed over them, winnowing the air as with a thousand eagles'
wings, and was lost on the moaning depths beyond.
The light went out of the sky. Now Geoffrey could only see the faint
outlines of her weeping face. One moment he hesitated and one only; then
Nature prevailed against him, for the next she was in his arms.
Beatrice scarcely resisted him. Her energies seemed to fail her, or
perhaps she had spent them in her bitter words. Her head fell upon his
shoulder, and there she sobbed her fill. Presently she lifted it and
their lips met in a first long kiss. It was finished; this was the end
of it--and thus did Geoffrey prosper Owen Davies's suit.
"Oh, you are cruel, cruel!" he whispered in her ear. "You must have
known I loved you, Beatrice, that I spoke against myself because I
thought it to be my duty.
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