“To waste his whole soul in one kiss Upon these perfect lips,”
in fact, but there is an inexplicable sensation of reverence for her that no other woman has ever raised in his breast.
And there is a purity in the face shewing up in the semi-light, that fills him, _blasé_ as he is--satiated as he is, with a wonderment that no woman’s face has ever created in him before.
The request is so simple, so childish, that it brings him down at once from the height to which imagination has raised him to practical every-day existence, and he laughs aloud at his own sentimental folly.
“But what will they say to our escapade? The garden is a large one, and it is close upon twelve o’clock now. You know how strict Lady Beranger’s notions are regarding the _bienséances_, and that such a nocturnal excursion will be in her eyes, flagrant. Unless indeed,” and he lowers his voice to the most harmonious key, “you were with a man you were engaged to!”
She does not seem to hear, or else she does not heed, the concluding words of his sentence, a deafness and indifference on her part that rails him considerably.
“If I were Gabrielle, I should answer, _au diable_ with anyone who wants to coerce me, especially when what I wish to do is innocent enough. As it is, those dreadful bogies of my life, _convenances_ and _bienséances_, must be infringed, the flagrancy of a nocturnal escapade braved, for I _will_ go round the garden, and you, Lord Delaval, you will surely be kind enough to stay here quietly under these lovely trees, until I come. Don’t let any one see you, for Heaven’s sake, that is, not mamma, or she will be suspecting I am flown, goodness knows where! I won’t tax your patience for more than ten minutes I promise.”
So after all she has not proposed a longer promenade for the sake of _his_ society, he thinks angrily. It is simply girlish nonsense that she wishes to indulge in, or--perhaps she wants to have a quiet cry over Carl Conway’s engagement to Crystal Meredyth. This suspicion ices his tone, and alters his manner strangely.
“I cannot possibly let you go by yourself, but if you _will_ go, I will go with you!”
“No! No! Do let me go by myself. What I want so much is to be alone with night, with the silence--with myself,” she answers hastily, then she adds quietly: