The Price of Love eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 423 pages of information about The Price of Love.

The Price of Love eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 423 pages of information about The Price of Love.

“Come!...  Please don’t make it any more awkward for me.”

With her right arm she raised the pillow and his head on it.  He drank, his sick lips curling awkwardly upon the rim of the cup, which she held for him.  When he had drunk, she put the cup down on the night-table, and tidied his bed, as though he had been a naughty child.  And then she left him, and drank tea slowly, savouringly, by herself in a chair near the dressing-table, out of the same cup.

VI

She had lied about the scullery door being open when she went downstairs on the night of the disappearance of the bank-notes.  The scullery door had not been open.  The lie was clumsy, futile, ill-considered.  It had burst out of the impulsiveness and generosity of her nature.  She had perceived that suspicion was falling, or might fall, upon Louis Fores, and the sudden lie had flashed forth to defend him.  That she could ultimately be charged with having told the lie in order to screen herself from suspicion had never once occurred to her.  And it did not even occur to her now as she sat perched uncomfortably on the chair in the night of desolation.  She was now deeply ashamed of the lie—­and she ought not to have been ashamed, for it was a lie magnanimous and fine; she might rather have taken pride in it.  She was especially ashamed of her repetition of the lie on the following day to Thomas Batchgrew, and of her ingenious embroidery upon it.  She hated to remember that she had wept violently in front of Thomas Batchgrew when he had charged her with having a secret about the loss of the notes.  He must have well known that she was lying; he must have suspected her of some complicity; and if later he had affected to ignore all the awkward aspects of the episode it was only because he wished to remain on good terms with Louis for his own ends.

Had she herself all the time suspected Louis?  In the harsh realism of the night hours she was not able positively to assert that she had never suspected him until after Julian’s confession had made her think; but, on the other hand, she would not directly accuse herself of having previously suspected him.  The worst that she could say was that she had been determined to believe him guiltless.  She loved him; she had wanted his love; she would permit nothing to prevent their coming together; and so in her mind she had established his innocence apparently beyond any overthrowing.  She might have allowed herself to surmise that in the early past he had been naughty, untrustworthy, even wicked—­but that was different, that did not concern her.  His innocence with regard to the bank-notes alone mattered.  And she had been genuinely convinced of it.  A few moments before he kissed her for the first time, she had been genuinely convinced of it.  And after the betrothal her conviction became permanent.  She tried to scorn now the passion which had blinded her.  Mrs. Maldon, at any rate, must have known that he was connected with the disappearance of the notes.  In the light of Louis’ confession Rachel could see all that Mrs. Maldon was implying in that last conversation between them.

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Project Gutenberg
The Price of Love from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.