Fair Margaret
Page 154'You could not open the door if you reached it,' he said. 'You said
that you wanted to speak with me alone. We are alone here--quite alone.
No one can hear, even if you scream. No one can get in. Why did you say
you wanted to be alone with me, if you were not in earnest? Why do you
risk playing with a man who is crazy about you, and has everything in
the world except you, and would throw it all away to have you? And now
that you are here of your own accord, why should I let you go?' The speech was rough, but there was a sudden caress in his voice with
the last words, and he had scarcely spoken them when another flash of
lightning filled the room with a maddening purple light.
close to her face, very fast.
'I will not let you go. I love you, and I will not let you go.' The thunder burst, and roared and echoed away, while he drew her
nearer, looking for the woman in her eyes, too mad to know that she did
not feel what he felt. He touched her now; he could feel her
breathings, fast and frightened, and the quiver that ran through her
limbs. He held her, but without hurting her in the least--she could
turn her wrists loosely in the bonds he made of his fingers. Yet she
could not get away from him and he drew her closer.
'Please--please, let me go.' 'No. I love you.' He drew her till she was pressed against him, and he held her hands in
his behind her waist. The air was clearing with a furious rush of rain,
and her courage was not all gone yet. She looked up to the high
windows, as one about to die might look up from the scaffold, and there
was a streak of clear blue sky between the driving clouds. It was as if
hope looked through, out of heaven, at the girl driven to bay.
Margaret did not try to use her strength, for she knew it was useless
against his. But she held her head back and spoke slowly.
For one moment his grasp tightened and his white teeth caught his lower
lip; but his look was changing slowly.
'For her sake,' Margaret said, 'as you would have kept harm from
her----' His hold relaxed, and he turned away. There was good in him still; he
had loved his mother.