|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 51
Then, after a pause, she said, drawing a little from him and resting a
hand upon either shoulder:
"But listen, dear; we must not think of ourselves now. We must think of
him, so sick and weak and helpless. This is a terrible moment in our
lives. I don't know why it has come to us. I don't know why it should
all have happened as it has this morning. Just a few moments ago I was
angry as I never was in my life before--and at you--and now it seems to
me that I never was so happy; I don't know myself any more. Everything
is confused; all we can do is to hold to what we know is right and trust
that everything will be well in the end. It is a crisis, isn't it? And
all our lives and all our happiness depend upon how we meet it. I am all
different now. I am not the woman I was a half-hour ago. You must be
brave for me now, and you must be strong for me and help me to do my
duty. We must live up to the best that is in us and do what we think is
right, no matter what risks we run, no matter what the consequences are.
I would not have asked you to help me before--before what has
happened--but now I need your help. You have said I helped you to be
brave; help me to be brave now, and to do what I know is right."
But Bennett was still blind. If she had been dear to him before, how
doubly so had she become since she had confessed her love for him!
Ferriss was forgotten, ignored. He could not let her go, he could not
let her run the slightest risk. Was he to take any chance of losing her
now? He shook his head.
"Ward!" she exclaimed with deep and serious earnestness. "If you do not
wish me to risk my life by going to my post, be careful, oh, be very
careful, that you do not risk something that is more to us both than
life itself, by keeping me from it. Do you think I could love you so
deeply and so truly as I do if I had not kept my standards high; if I
had not believed in the things that were better than life, and stronger
than death, and dearer to me than even love itself? There are some
things I cannot do: I cannot be false, I cannot be cowardly, I cannot
shirk my duty. Now I am helpless in your hands. You have conquered, and
you can do with me as you choose. But if you make me do what is false,
and what is cowardly, and what is dishonourable; if you stand between me
and what I know is my duty, how can I love you, how can I love you?"
Persistently, perversely, Bennett stopped his ears to every
consideration, to every argument. She wished to hazard her life. That
was all he understood.
"No, Lloyd," he answered, "you must not do it."
"--and I want to love you," she went on, as though she had not heard. "I
want you to be everything to me. I have trusted you so long--had faith
in you so long, I don't want to think of you as the man who failed me
when I most needed his help, who made me do the thing that was
contemptible and unworthy. Believe me," she went on with sudden energy,
"you will kill my love for you if you persist."
But before Bennett could answer there was a cry.
"It is the servant," exclaimed Lloyd quickly. "She has been
watching--there in the room with him."
"Nurse--Miss Searight," came the cry, "quick--there is something
wrong--I don't know--oh, hurry!"
"Do you hear?" cried Lloyd. "It is the crisis--he may be dying. Oh,
Ward, it is the man you love! We can save him." She stamped her foot in
the frenzy of her emotion, her hands twisting together. "I _will_ go. I
forbid you to keep--to hinder--to--to, oh, what is to become of us? If
you love me, if you love him--_Ward, will you let me go?_"
Bennett put his hands over his ears, his eyes closed. In the horror of
that moment, when he realised that no matter how he might desire it he
could not waver in his resolution, it seemed to him that his reason must
give way. But he set his back to the door, his hand gripped tight upon
the knob, and through his set teeth his answer came as before:
"No."
"Nurse--Miss Searight, where are you? Hurry, oh, hurry!"
"Will you let me go?"
"No."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|