Mora looked at him again.
The stern profile might well be about to say: "Shudder again, and I will do to thee that which shall give thee cause to shudder indeed!"
Yet, at that moment he spoke, and his voice was infinitely gentle.
"Yonder rides a true friend," he said. "One who has learned love"s deepest lesson."
"What is love"s deepest lesson?" she asked.
He turned and looked at her, and the fire of his dark eyes was drowned in tenderness.
"That true love means self-sacrifice," he said. "Come, my beloved.
Let us walk in the gardens, where we can talk at ease of our plans for the days to come."
CHAPTER XL
THE HEART OF A NUN
Hugh and Mora pa.s.sed together through the great hall, along the armoury, down the winding stair and so out into the gardens.
The Knight led the way across the lawn and through the rose garden, toward the yew hedge and the bowling-green.
Old Debbie, looking from her cas.e.m.e.nt, thought them beautiful beyond words as she watched them cross the lawn--she in white and gold, he in white and silver; his dark head towering above her fair one, though she was uncommon tall. And, falling upon her knees, old Debbie prayed to the Angel Gabriel that she might live to hold in her arms, and rock to sleep upon her bosom, sweet babes, both fair and dark: "Fair little maids," she said, "and fine, dark boys," explaining to Gabriel that which she thought would be most fit.
Meanwhile Hugh and Mora, walking a yard apart--all unconscious of these family plans, being so anxiously made for them at an upper cas.e.m.e.nt--bent their tall heads and pa.s.sed under the arch in the yew hedge, crossed the bowling-green, and entered the arbour of the golden roses.
Hugh led the way; yet Mora gladly followed. The Bishop"s presence seemed to abide here, in comfort and protection.
All signs of the early repast were gone from the rustic table.
Mora took her seat there where in the early morning she had sat; while Hugh, not knowing he did so, pa.s.sed into the Bishop"s place.
The sun shone through the golden roses, hanging in cl.u.s.ters over the entrance.
The sense of the Bishop"s presence so strongly pervaded the place, that almost at once Mora felt constrained to speak of him.
"Hugh," she said, "very early this morning, long before you were awake, the Bishop and I broke our fast, in this arbour, together."
The Knight smiled.
"I knew that," he said. "In his own characteristic way the Bishop told it me. "My son," he said, "you have reversed the sacred parable. In your case it was the bride-groom who, this morning, slumbered and slept." "True, my lord," said I. "But there were no foolish virgins about." "Nay, verily!" replied the Bishop. "The two virgins awake at that hour were pre-eminently wise: the one, making as the sun rose most golden pats of b.u.t.ter and crusty rolls; the other, rising early to partake of them with appet.i.te. Truly there were no foolish virgins about. There was but one foolish prelate.""
She, who so lately had been Prioress of the White Ladies, flushed with indignation at the words.
"Wherefore said he so?" she inquired, severely. "He, who is always wiser than the wisest."
Hugh noted the heightened colour and the ready protest.
"Perhaps," he suggested, speaking slowly, as if choosing his words with care, "the Bishop"s head, being so wise, revealed to him, in himself, a certain foolishness of heart."
Mora struck the table with her hand.
"Nay then, verily!" she cried. "Head and heart alike are wise; and--unlike other men--the Bishop"s head rules his heart."
"And a most n.o.ble heart,", the Knight said, with calmness; neither wincing at the blow upon the table, nor at the "unlike other men,"
flung out in challenge.
Then, folding his arms upon the table, and looking searchingly into the face of his bride: "Tell me," he said, "during all these years, has this friendship with Symon of Worcester meant much to thee?"
Something in his tone arrested Mora. She answered, with an equal earnestness: "Yes, Hugh. It has done more for me than can well be told. It has kept living and growing in me much that would otherwise have been stunted or dead; an ever fresh flow of thought, where, but for him, would have been a stagnant pool. My sad heart might have grown bitter, my nature too austere, particularly when advancement to high office brought with it an inevitable loneliness, had it not been for the interest and charm of his visits and missives; his constant gifts and kindness. There is about him a light-hearted gaiety, a whimsical humour, a joy in life, which cannot fail to wake responsive gladness in any heart with which he comes in contact. And mingled with his shrewd wisdom, his wide knowledge of men and matters, there is ever a tender charity, which thinks no evil, always believing in good and hoping for the best; a love which never fails; a kindness which makes one ashamed of harbouring hard or revengeful thoughts."
Hugh made no reply. He sat with his eyes fixed upon the beautiful face before him, now glowing with enthusiasm. He waited for something more.
And presently it came.
"Also," said Mora, slowly: "a very precious memory of my early days at Court, when as a young maiden I attended on the Queen, was kept alive by a remarkable likeness in the Bishop to one who was, as I learned this morning for the first time, actually near of kin to him. Do you remember, Hugh, long years ago, that I spoke to you of Father Gervaise?"
"I do remember," said the Knight.
She leaned her elbows on the table, framed her face in her hands, and looked straight into his eyes.
"Father Gervaise was more to me than I then told you, Hugh."
"What was he to thee, Mora?"
"He was the Ideal of my girlhood. For a time, I thought of him by day, I dreamed of him by night. No word of his have I ever forgotten. Many of his sayings and precepts have influenced, and still deeply influence, my whole life. In fact, Hugh, I loved Father Gervaise; not as a woman loves a man--ah, no! But, rather, as a nun loves her Lord."
"I see," said the Knight. "But you were not then a nun, Mora."
"No, I was not then a nun. But I have been a nun since then; and that is how I can best describe my love for the Queen"s Confessor."
"Long after," said the Knight, "you were betrothed to me?"
"Yes, Hugh."
"How did you love me, Mora?"
Across the rustic table they looked full into each other"s eyes.
Tragedy, stalking around that rose-covered arbour, drew very near, and they knew it. Almost, his grim shadow came between them and the sunshine.
Then the Knight smiled; and with that smile rushed back the flood-tide of remembrance; remembrance of all which their young love had meant, of the sweet promise it had held.
His eyes still holding hers, she smiled also.
The golden roses cl.u.s.tering in the entrance swayed and nodded in the sunlight, as a gently rising breeze fanned them to and fro.
"Dear Knight," she said, softly, a wistful tenderness in her voice, "I suppose I loved you, as a girl loves the man who has won her."