"Miss Wray!" Contrition, doubt, amazement mingled in his tone.
"Good-by," she said coldly.
And suddenly, as one sees through a rift in the clouds the clear light, he understood.
"You will go with me? You!"
"Why, as for that--"
Fleece of gold! Heaven of blue eyes! They were so near!
"And if I did, you who misinterpret motives, would think--"
"What?"
"That I came here to--"
"I should like to think that."
"Well, I came," said the girl, "I don"t know why! Unless the boy who was taking down the signs had something to do with it!"
"The--?"
"He said to go "straight up"!" she laughed.
He laughed, too; all the world seemed laughing. He hardly knew what he said, how she answered; only that she was there, slender, beautiful, as the springtime full of flowers; that a miracle had happened, was happening. The mottled blur in the sky had become a spot of brightness; sunshine filled the room; in a cage above, a tiny feathered creature began to chirp.
"And Sir Charles? Lady Wray?" He spoke quietly, but with wild pulsing of temples, exultant fierce throbbing of heart; he held her from all the world.
"They?" She was silent a moment; then looked up with a touch of her old, bright imperiousness. "My uncle loves me, has never denied me anything, and he will not in this--that is, if I tell him--"
"What?"
Did her lips answer; or was it only in her wilful, smiling eyes that he read what he sought?
"Jocelyn!"
Above the little bird, with a red spot on its breast, bent its bead-like eyes on them; but neither saw, noticed. Besides, it was only a successor to the bird that had once been hers; that had flown like a flashing jewel from her soul to his, in that place, seawashed, remote from the world.