"
"Oh, Beatrice, do not be distressed," he answered. "I saw that you were
asleep. It is a dreadful thing which has happened, but I do not think
that we were seen."
"I do not know," she said. "Elizabeth looked at me very strangely this
morning, and she sees everything. Geoffrey, for my part, I neither know
nor care. What I do care for is, what must _you_ think of me? You must
believe, oh!--I cannot say it. And yet I am innocent. Never, never did I
dream of this. To come to you--thus--oh, it is shameless!"
"Beatrice, do not talk so. I tell you I know it. Listen--I drew you. I
did not mean that you should come. I did not think that you would come,
but it was my doing. Listen to me, dear," and he told her that which
written words can ill express.
When he had finished, she looked up, with another face; the deep shadow
of her shame had left her. "I believe you, Geoffrey," she said, "because
I know that you have not invented this to shield me, for I have felt
it also. See by it what you are to me. You are my master and my all. I
cannot withstand you if I would. I have little will apart from yours
if you choose to gainsay mine.
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