But he was pulling her down to him so that she was forced on to her knees on the grass, with her face close to his.  A low moaning was coming from him.  It was horrible—­so horrible!  And he went on pleading, the words all confused, not looking in her face.  It seemed to her that it would never end, that she would never get free of that grip, away from that stammering, whispering voice.  She stayed by instinct utterly still, closing her eyes.  Then she felt his gaze for the first time that evening on her face, and realized that he had not dared to look until her eyes were closed, for fear of reading what was in them.  She said very gently: 

“Please let me go.  I think I’m going to faint.”

He relaxed the grip of his arms; she sank down and stayed unmoving on the grass.  After such utter stillness that she hardly knew whether he were there or not, she felt his hot hand on her bare shoulder.  Was it all to begin again?  She shrank down lower still, and a little moan escaped her.  He let her go suddenly, and, when at last she looked up, was gone.

She got to her feet trembling, and moved quickly from under the yew-trees.  She tried to think—­tried to understand exactly what this portended for her, for him, for her lover.  But she could not.  There was around her thoughts the same breathless darkness that brooded over this night.  Ah! but to the night had been given that pale-gold moon-ray, to herself nothing, no faintest gleam; as well try to pierce below the dark surface of that water!

She passed her hands over her face, and hair, and dress.  How long had it lasted?  How long had they been out here?  And she began slowly moving back towards the house.  Thank God!  She had not yielded to fear or pity, not uttered falsities, not pretended she could love him, and betrayed her heart.  That would have been the one unbearable thing to have been left remembering!  She stood long looking down, as if trying to see the future in her dim flower-beds; then, bracing herself, hurried to the house.  No one was on the veranda, no one in the drawing-room.  She looked at the clock.  Nearly eleven.  Ringing for the servant to shut the windows, she stole up to her room.  Had her husband gone away as he had come?  Or would she presently again be face to face with that dread, the nerve of which never stopped aching now, dread of the night when he was near?  She determined not to go to bed, and drawing a long chair to the window, wrapped herself in a gown, and lay back.

The flower from her dress, miraculously uncrushed in those dark minutes on the grass, she set in water beside her at the window—­Mark’s favourite flower, he had once told her; it was a comfort, with its scent, and hue, and memory of him.