She laughed rarely, but her voice was low and thrilled."
"Her breath," Senhouse continued, "was like the scent of bean-flowers. She
sweetened the earth. It is true that she laughed seldom, but when she did
the sun shone from behind a cloud. When she was silent you could hear her
heart beat. She was deliberate, measured in all that she did--yet her
spirit was as swift as the south-west wind. She did nothing that was not
lovely, and never faltered in what she purposed. When first I came to know
her and see the workings of her noble mind, I was so happy in the mere
thought of her that I sang all day as I worked or walked. It never entered
me for one minute that I could desire anything but the knowledge of her."
"I wanted my mistress altogether," the other broke in, "from the first
moment to the last--fool, and wicked fool, as you may think me. I could
see her bosom stir her gown--I could see the lines of her as she walked.
She was kind to me, I tell you, and there were times when--alone with her
--in her melting mood--in the wildness of my passion--but no! something
held me: I never dared touch her.... And then he--the other--came back;
he, with his 'claims' and 'rights'; and the thought of him, and what he
could do--and did do--made me blind.
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