Beyond the Rocks

"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.