278


THE    COMMON   LAW


Suddenly  she  slid  down  to  the  floor  and  knelt  there  con-
fronting him,  her  arms  around  him.
"  Dearer  than  all  the  world  and  heaven  ! — do  j'ou
think  that  I  am  breaking  your  heart?  You  know  I  am
not.  You  know  what  I  am  doing  for  your  sake,  for
your  famil^f's  sake,  for  my  own.  I  am  only  giving  you
a  love  that  can  cause  them  no  pain,  bring  no  regret  to
you.     Take  it,  then,  and  kiss  me."

But  the  days  were  full  of  little  scenes  like  this — of
earnest,  fiery  discussions,  of  passionate  arguments,  of
flashes  of  temper  ending  in  tears  and  heavenly  recon-
ciliation.
He  had  gone  for  two  weeks  to  visit  his  father  and
mother  at  their  summer  home  near  Portsmouth,  and
before  he  went  he  took  her  in  his  arms  and  told  her  how
ashamed  he  was  of  his  bad  temper  at  the  idea  of  her
going  on  the  Mohave,  and  said  that  she  might  go ;  tliat
he  did  trust  her  anjnvhere,  and  that  he  was  trying  to
learn  to  concede  to  her  the  same  liberty  of  action  and
of  choice  that  any  man  enjoyed.
But  she  convinced  him  very  sweetly  that  she  really
had  no  desire  to  go,  and  sent  him  off  to  Spindrift  House
happy,  and  madly  in  love ;  which  resulted  in  two  letters
a  day  from  him,  and  in  her  passing  long  evenings  in
confidential  duets  with  Rita  Tevis.
Rita  had  taken  the  bedroom  next  to  Valerie's,  and
together  they  had  added  the  luxury  of  a  tiny  living
room  to  the  suite.
