"My darling, my darling! Good-bye," he said, brokenly. "You have taught
me all that life means; all that it can hold of pleasure and pain.
Henceforth, it is the gray path of shadows; and oh, God take care of you
and grant us some peace."
But she was sobbing on his breast and could not speak.
"And remember," he went on, "I shall never forget you or cease to
worship and adore you. Always know you have only to send me a message, a
word, and I will come to you and do what you ask, to my last drop of
blood. I love you! Oh, God! I love you, and you were made for me, and we
could have been happy together and glorified the world."
Then he folded her again in his arms and held her so close it seemed the
breath must leave her body, and then they walked on silently, and
silently entered the house by the western garden door.
The evening was a blank to Theodora. She dressed in her satins and
laces, and let her maid fasten her wonderful emeralds on throat and
breast and hair. She descended to the drawing-room and walked in to
dinner with some strange man--all as one in a dream. She answered as an
automaton, and the man thought how beautiful she was, and what a pity
for so beautiful a woman to be so stupid and silent and dull.
"Almost wanting," was his last comment to himself as the ladies left the
dining-room.
Then Theodora forced herself to speak--to chatter to a now complacent
group of women who gathered round her. Those emeralds, and the way the
diamonds were set round them, proved too strong an attraction for even
Lady Harrowfield to keep far away.
She was going to have her rubies remounted, and this seemed just the
pattern she would like.
So the time passed, and the men came into the room. But Hector was not
with them. He had found a telegram, it transpired, which had been
waiting for him on his return, and it would oblige him to go to
Bracondale immediately, so he was motoring up to London that night. He
had acted his part to the end, and no one guessed he was leaving the
best of his life behind him. When Theodora realized he was gone she
suddenly felt very faint; but she, too, was not of common clay, and
breeding will tell in crises of this sort, so she sat up and talked
gayly. The evening passed, and at last she was alone for the night.