Part 3 (2/2)
”And you will bear with Peter?” she ier me,” he answered ”I swear that too Do you know that but to-day he struck me?”
”Struck you? You did not tell ue that sent hihed at the blow Was he not sacred to ood at heart, Noll,” she pursued ”In time he will come to love you as you deserve, and you will come to know that he, too, deserves your love”
”He deserves it now for the love he bears to you”
”And you will think ever thus during the little while of waiting that perforce must lie before us?”
”I shall never think otherwise, sweet Meanwhile I shall avoid him, and that no harm may come should he forbid me Godolphin Court I'll even stay away In less than a year you will be of full age, and none o What is a year, with such hope as mine to still ientle with me ever, Noll,” she murmured fondly ”I cannot credit you are ever harsh to any, as they say”
”Heed the of all that, but you have purified entle” He kissed her, and stood up ”I had best be going now,” he said ”I shall walk along the shore towards Trefusis Point to- If you should chance to be sihed, and rose in her turn ”I shall be there, dear Noll”
”'Twere best so hereafter,” he assured her, s, and so took his leave
She followed him to the stair-head, and watched hiht carriage of that stalwart, masterful lover
CHAPTER III THE FORGE
Sir Oliver's wisdo the first to bear Rosas was established anon when Master Godolphin returned hoht in quest of his sister; and in a frame of eneral sense of discootten of all this he was harsh in manner and disposed to hector
”Madam,” he announced abruptly, ”Sir John is like to die”
The astounding answer she returned hi to him--did not tend to soothe his sorely ruffled spirit
”I know,” she said ”And I believe him to deserve no less Who deals in calues of it”
He stared at her in a long, furious silence, then exploded into oaths, and finally inveighed against her unnaturalness and pronounced her bewitched by that foul dog Tressilian
”It is fortunate for me,” she answered hiive me the truth of this affair” Then her assuer hich she had met his own all fell away frouish, ”I hope that Sir John will recover I aht by this event But be just, I implore you Sir Oliver has told me how hard-driven he had been”
”He shall be driven harder yet, as God's o unpunished”
She flung herself upon his breast and implored him to carry this quarrel no further She spoke of her love for Sir Oliver and announced her firm resolve to marry him in despite of all opposition that could be made, all of which did not tend to soften her brother's humour Yet because of the love that ever had held these two in closest bonds he went so far in the end as to say that should Sir John recover he would not himself pursue the matter further But if Sir John should die--as was very likely--honour coeance of a deed to which he had hiely contributed
”I read that man as if he were an open book,” the boy announced, with callow boastfulness ”He has the subtlety of Satan, yet he does not delude rew Because he desires you, Rosamund, he could not--as he bluntly told h I went the length of striking hiht have killed me for't; but he knew that to do so would place a barrier 'twixt hi as all the fiends of hell So, to wipe out the dishonour which I did hioes out to kill hi toher gentle heart with anguish to see this feud increasing between the two men she loved best in all the world If the outcome of it should be that either were to kill the other, she knew that she could never again look upon the survivor
She took heart at last in the memory of Sir Oliver's sworn promise that her brother's life should be inviolate to hiht She trusted hith of his which rendered possible to him a course that no weaker man would dare pursue And in this reflection her pride in him increased, and she thanked God for a lover who in all things was a giant a men