"Nay, only two things. Are you the wife of some other man?"
"Not so, though perhaps--once I went near to it. What is the other
question?"
"Do you love some other man so that your heart tells you it is not
possible that you should ever love me?"
"No, I do not," she answered almost fiercely, "but by the Rood! I hate
one."
"Which is no affair of mine," I said, laughing. "For the rest, let it
sleep. Few are they that know life's wars who have no scar to hide, and
I am not one of them, though in truth your lips made the deepest yonder
by the cave at Hastings."
When she heard this she coloured to her brow and forgetting her tears,
laughed outright, while I went on:
"Therefore let the past be and if it is your will, let us set our eyes
upon the future. Only one promise would I ask of you, that never again
will you be alone with the lord Deleroy, since one so light-fingered
with a pen would, I think, steal other things."
"By my soul! the last thing I desire is to be alone with my cousin
Deleroy."
Now she rose from the chair and for a little while we stood facing
each other.
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