“It is desire to be near you.”

“I don’t think you had better say such a thing——­”

“I know I had better not.  But it is said, and it is true.  I’m not trying to explain it to you or to myself.  It’s just true.  There has not been one moment, since I saw you, which has been free from memory of you——­”

“Please——­”

“I scarcely know what I am saying—­but it’s true!” He checked himself.  “I’m losing my head now, which isn’t like me!” He choked and stood up; she could not move; every nerve in her had become tense with emotions so bewildering that mind and body remained fettered.

He was walking to and fro, silent and white under his self-control.  She, seated, gazed at him as though stunned, but every pulse was riotously unsteady.

“I suppose you think me crazy,” he said hoarsely, “but I’ve not known a moment’s peace of mind since that night—­not one!  I couldn’t keep away any longer.  I can’t even hold my tongue now, though I suppose it’s ruining me every time I move it.  It’s a crazy thing to come here and say what I’m saying.”

He went over and sat down again, and bent his dark gaze on the floor.  Then: 

“Can you forgive what I have done to you?”

She tried to answer, and only made a sign of faint assent.  She no longer comprehended herself or the emotions menacing her.  A curious tranquillity quieted her at moments—­intervals in which she seemed to sit apart watching the development of another woman, listening to her own speech, patient with her own silences.  There was a droop to her shoulders now; his own were sagging as he leaned slightly forward in his chair, arms resting on his knees, while around them the magic ebbed, eddied, ebbed; and lassitude succeeded tension; and she stirred, looked up at him with eyes that seemed dazed at first, then widened slowly into waking; and he saw in them the first clear dawn of alarm.  Suddenly she flushed and sprang to her feet, the bright colour surging to her hair.

“Don’t!” he said.  “Don’t reason!  There will be nothing left of me if you do—­or of, these moments.  You will hate them—­and me, if you reason.  Don’t think—­until we see each other again!”

She dropped her eyes slowly, and slowly shook her head.

“You ask too much,” she said.  “You should not have said that.”  All the glamour was fading.  Her senses were seeking their balance after the incredible storm that had whirled them into chaos.

Fear stirred sharply, then consternation—­flashes of panic pierced her with darts of shame, as though she had been in physical contact with this man.

All her outraged soul leaped to arms, quivering now under the reaction; the man’s mere presence was becoming unendurable; the room stifled her.  She turned, scarce knowing what she was doing; and at the same moment her sister-in-law entered.

Berkley, already on his feet, turned short:  and when she offered him a hand as slim and white as Ailsa’s, he glanced inquiringly at the latter, not at all certain who this charming woman might be.