They had been walking slowly through the wood amongst the trees, his arm
round her; she stopped, the blood suffused her face, then she turned
pale. She was silent for a moment or two as he looked down at her
yearningly, anxiously; then she said in a low voice, "I will, if you wish it."
He drew her to him, and kissed her passionately, gratefully.
"You will, Celia?" he said, astonished at her goodness to him.
"Yes," she said, simply. "Does it seem so great a thing? No, don't
answer. I feel mean; for, dearest, I'm only too ready. Oh, it's no use
my trying to conceal my love. Think of the time we have been parted, all
the months I've been thinking of and longing for you! Why should I
refuse to marry you, now, this minute, if I could?"
He was silent, as she lay on his breast, her face upturned to his, her
eyes, glowing with woman's tender passion and woman's glad surrender,
meeting his fearlessly and yet with a little pleading in them, as if she
were begging him not to think her immodest.
"I'm not worth such love as yours," said Derrick, his lips drawn
straight. "I'm overwhelmed by it. You're too good for me to touch,
dearest--and you're going to marry me, to be my wife!"
She laughed at him softly. "Don't put me on too high a pedestal," she
said. "I shall tumble off some day and the fall will be so great. I'm
just an ordinary girl, whose only merit is that she loves the best, the
dearest man in the world. Such a lucky girl, dear!"
"All right," he said, with a laugh that was rather broken. "We'll leave
it at that; it's too wild an assertion to contradict. Though the luck's
all on my side, God knows. Now, let me think--it's hard to think when
I'm holding you like this, when my heart's jumping and something's
shouting in my ear, 'She's going to be your wife. Your wife!' I don't
know much about the business of being married--I've never been married
before, you see--but I fancy it's possible to get a special licence. I
don't know how you manage it; but I'll find out. Oh, by George! I'll ask
our friend, Reggie Rex; he appears to know everything, the human heart
included. Dearest, I hope you won't mind: I told him about--ourselves,
our happiness, last night. Not that it was necessary to tell him, for,
with that weird penetration, acuteness, of his, he guessed it the moment
he saw me, when I came back from you."