She did not resist, but resigned herself to his embrace, as if he still
had the right to take her in his arms, as if she still belonged to him.
She had been under a great, an indescribable strain for several hours,
and his sudden presence, the look in his eyes, the touch of his hands,
deprived her of the power of thought, of resistance. To her and to him,
at that moment, it was as if they had not been parted, as if the events
of the last few months were only visionary.
With surrender in every fibre of her being she lay in his arms, her
head upon his breast, her eyes closed, her heart throbbing wildly under
the kisses which he pressed passionately upon her lips, her hair; the
while he called upon her name, as if his lips hungered to pronounce it.
"Stafford!" she said, at last. "It is really you! When--" Her voice
died away, as if she were speaking in a dream, and her eyes closed with
a little shudder of perfect joy and rest.
"Yes, it's I!" he responded, in a voice almost as low as hers, a voice
that trembled with the intensity of his passion, his joy in having her
in his arms again. "Last night I came down by the first train--I waited
at the station for it--I came straight from the docks." She drew a
happy sigh.
"So soon? And you came straight here? When I saw you just now, I
thought it was a vision: if the dogs had not been here--I remembered
that dogs do not see ghosts. Oh, Stafford, it is so long, so very long
since I have seen you, so sad and dreary a time! Tell me--ah, tell me
everything! Where you have been. But I know! Stafford, did you know
that I saw you the day you sailed?" she shuddered faintly. "I thought
that was a vision, too, that it was my fancy: it would not have been
the first time I had fancied I had seen you." He drew her to the bank,
and sinking on it held her in his arms, almost like a child.
"You saw me! You--there in London! And yet I can understand. Dearest, I
did not hear of your trouble until a few weeks ago. But I must tell
you--"
"Yes, tell me. I long to hear! Think, Stafford! I have not heard of
you--I saw you at the concert in London one night--"
He started and held her more tightly.