Audrey

She curtsied to him, so changed, so defiant, so darkly beautiful, that he

caught his breath to behold her. "You are all the world to me!" he cried.

"Audrey, Audrey! Look at me, listen to me!"

He would have approached her, would have seized her hand, but she waved

him back. "Oh, the world! We must think of that! What would they say, the

Governor and the Council, and the people who go to balls, and all the

great folk you write to in England,--what would they say if you married

me? Mr. Marmaduke Haward of Fair View, the richest man in Virginia! Mr.

Marmaduke Haward, the man of taste, the scholar, the fine gentleman, proud

of his name, jealous of his honor! And Darden's Audrey, who hath gone

barefoot on errands to most houses in Fair View parish! Darden's Audrey,

whom the preacher pointed out to the people in Bruton church! They would

call you mad; they would give you cap and bells; they would say, 'Does he

think that he can make her one of us?--her that we turned and looked long

upon in Bruton church, when the preacher called her by a right name'"-"Child, for God's sake!" cried Haward.

"There is the lady, too,--the lady who left us here together! We must not

forget to think of her,--of her whose picture you showed me at Fair View,

who was to be your wife, who took me by the hand that night at the

Palace. There is reproach in her eyes. Ah, do you not think the look might

grow, might come to haunt us? And yourself! Oh, sooner or later regret and

weariness would come to dwell at Fair View! The lady who walks in the

garden here is a fine lady and a fit mate for a fine gentleman, and I am a

beggar maid and no man's mate, unless it be Hugon's. Hugon, who has sworn

to have me in the house he has built! Hugon, who would surely kill you"-Haward caught her by the wrists, bruising them in his grasp. "Audrey,

Audrey! Let these fancies be! If we love each other"-"If!" she echoed, and pulled her hands away. Her voice was strange, her

eyes were bright and strained, her face was burning. "But if not, what

then? And how should I love you who are a stranger to me? Oh, a generous

stranger who, where he thinks he has done a wrong, would repair the

damage." Her voice broke; she flung back her head and pressed her hands

against her throat. "You have done me no wrong," she said. "If you had, I

would forgive you, would say good-by to you, would go my way.... as I am

going now. Let me pass, sir!"