” Have I been so blatant?”

” Tremendously so … adorably so.”

I knew that it was foolish to pretend. I gave myself up to his embrace, and it was wonderful beyond my imaginings.

At length I said: “I have a terrible feeling that I shall wake up in bed at Mount Mellyn and find I have dreamed all this.”

” Do you know,” he said seriously, ” I feel exactly the same.”

” But it is so different for you. You can do as you will … go where you will … dependent on no one.”

” I am dependent no longer. I depend on Marty, Martha, my dear Miss Leigh.”

He spoke so seriously that I could have wept with tenderness. The changing emotions were almost too much for me to bear.

This is love! I thought. The emotion which carries one to the very heights of human experience and, because it can carry one so high, one is in continual danger of falling; and one must never forget, the higher the delight, the more tragic the fall.

But this was not the moment to think of tragedy. I loved, and miraculously I was loved. I had no doubt in that library of Penlandstow that I was loved.

For love such as this, one would be prepared to risk everything.

He put his hands on my shoulders and looked long into my face.

He said : ” We’ll be happy, my darling. We’ll be happier than either you or I ever dreamed possible.”

I knew that we should be. All that had gone before would give us a finer appreciation of this joy we could bring each other.

” We should be practical,” he said. ” We should make our plans. When shall we marry? I do not like delay. I am the most impatient man alive, where my own pleasures are concerned. We will go home tomorrow, and there we will announce our engagement. No, not tomorrow … the day after. I have one or two little commitments here tomorrow. And as soon as we are home we will give a ball to announce our engagement. I think that in a month after that we should be setting out on our honeymoon. I suggest Italy, unless you have any other ideas?”

I sat with my hands clasped. I must have looked like an ecstatic schoolgirl.

” I wonder what they will think at Mount Mellyn.”

” Who, the servants? You may be sure they have a pretty shrewd idea of the way things are; servants have, you know. Servants are like detectives in the house. They pick up every little clue. You shiver.

Are you cold? “

” No, only excited. I still believe I’m going to wake up in a moment.”

” And you like the idea of Italy?”

” I would like the idea of the North Pole in some company.”

” By which, my darling, I hope you mean mine.”

” That was my intention.”

” My dear Miss Leigh,” he said, ” how I love your astringent moods.

They are going to make conversation throughout our lives so invigorating. ” I had an idea then that he was making comparisons between Alice and myself, and I shivered again as I had when he had made that remark about the detectives.

” You are a little worried about the reception of the news,” he went on. ” The servants … the countryside…. Who cares? Do you? Of course you do not. Miss Leigh has too much good sense for that. I am longing to tell Peter Nansellock that you are to be my wife. To tell the truth I have been somewhat jealous of that young man.”

” There was no need to be.”

” Still I was anxious. I had visions of his persuading you to go to Australia with him. That was something I should have gone to great lengths to prevent.”

” Even so far as asking me to marry you?”

” Farther than that if the need had arisen. I should have abducted you and locked you up in a dungeon until he was far away.”

” There was no need for the slightest apprehension.”

” Are you quite sure? He is very handsome, I believe.”

” Perhaps he is. I did not notice.”

” I could have killed him when he had the effrontery to offer you Jacinth.”

” I think he merely enjoys being outrageous. He probably knew I should not accept it.”

” And I need not fear him?”

“You need never fear anyone,” I told him.

Then once more I was in that embrace, and I was oblivious of all’ but the fact that I had discovered love, and believed, as doubtless hosts of lovers have before, that there was never love such as that between us two.

At length he said : ” We’ll go back the day after tomorrow. We’ll start making arrangements immediately. In a month from now we’ll be married. We’ll put up the banns as soon as we return. We will have a ball to announce our engagement and invite all our neighbours to the wedding.”

” I suppose it must be done in this way?”

” Tradition, my darling. It is one of the things we have to bow down to. You’ll be magnificent, I know. You’re not nervous?”

” Of your country neighbours, no.”

” You and I will open the ball this time together, dearest Miss Leigh.”

“Yes,” I said; and I pictured myself in the green dress wearing the amber comb in my hair with the diamond horseshoe glittering on the green background.

I had no qualms about taking my place in his circle.

Then he began to talk of Alice. ” I have never told you,” he said, ” of my first marriage.”

” No,” I answered.

” It was not a happy one.”

” I’m sorry.”

” A marriage which was arranged. This time I shall marry my own choice. Only one who has suffered the first can realise the joy of the second. Dearest, I have not lived the life of a monk, I fear.”

” I guessed it.”

” I am a most sinful man, as you will discover.”

” I am prepared for the worst.”

” Alice … my wife … and I were most unsuited, I suppose.”

” Tell me about her.”

” There is little to tell. She was a gentle creature, quiet, anxious to please. She seemed to have little spirit. I understood why. She was in love with someone else when she married me.”

” The man she ran away with?” I asked.

He nodded. ” Poor Alice! She was unfortunate. She chose not only the wrong husband but the wrong lover. There is little to choose between us … myself and Geoffry Nansellock. We were of a kind. In the old days there was a tradition of the droit de seigneurs in these parts.

Geoffry and I did our best to maintain that. “

” You are telling me that you have enjoyed many love affairs.”

” I am a dissolute, degenerate philanderer. I am going to say was.

Because from this moment I am going to be faithful to one woman for the rest of my life. You do not look scornful or sceptical. Bless you for that. I mean it, dearest Marty. I swear I mean it. It is because of those experiences of the past that I know the difference between them and this. This is love. “

” Yes,” I said slowly, ” you and I will be faithful together because that is the only way we can prove to each other the depth and breadth of our love.”

He took my hands and kissed them, and I had never known him so serious. “I love you,” he said. ” Remember that … always remember it.”

” I intend to.”

” You may hear gossip.”

” One does hear gossip,” I admitted.

” You have heard of Alice and that Alvean is not my daughter? Oh, darling, someone told you and you do not want to betray the teller.

Never mind. You know. It is true. I could never love the child. In fact I avoided the sight of her. She was an unpleasant reminder of much that I wished to forget. But when you came I felt differently.

You made me see her as a lonely child, suffering from the sins of grownup people. You see, you changed me, Marty dear. Your coming changed the whole household. That is what confirms me in my belief that with us it is going to be different from anything that has ever happened to me before. “

” Connan, I want to make that child happy. I want to make her forget that there is a doubt as to her parentage. Let her be able to accept you as her father. It is what she needs.”

” You will be a mother to her. Then I must be her father.” _ ” We are going to be so happy, Connan.”

” Can you see into the future?”

” I can see into ours, for our future is what we make it, and I intend that it shall be one of complete happiness.”

” And what Miss Leigh decides shall be, will be. And you will promise me not to be hurt if you hear gossip about me?”

” You are thinking of Lady Treslyn, I know. She has been your mistress.”

He nodded. “

Then I said : ” She will never be again. That is all over.”

He kissed my hand. ” Have you not sworn eternal fidelity?”

” But, Connan,” I said, ” she is so beautiful and she will still be there.”

” But I am in love,” he answered, ” for the first time in my life.”

” And you were not in love with her?”

” Lust, passion,” he answered, ” they sometimes wear the guise of love; but when one meets true love one recognises them for what they are. Dearest, let us bury all that is past. Let us start afresh from this day forth … you and I … for better for worse….”

I was in his arms again. ” Connan,” I said, ” I am not dreaming, am I? Please say I am not dreaming. “

It was late when I left him. I went to my room in a haze of happiness.

I was afraid to sleep for fear I should wake up and find it had all been a dream.

In the morning I went to Alvean’s room and told her the news.

For a few seconds a satisfied smile appeared at the corners of her mouth; then she assumed indifference, but it was too late. I knew that she was pleased.

” You’ll stay with us all the time now, Miss,” she said.

” Yes,” I assured her.