Now, when Gilbert was at Surbiton, there was an unwritten law that when they took their walks abroad he should pair off with Kitty, and Ernest with Helen. This arrangement was so well understood that Ernest never thought of even grumbling at it. So Gilbert and Kitty led the way to the terrace or esplanade on that side of the Thames, where they found a sequestered seat. And there they were left by the other two, who walked on towards the waterworks.

It was a delightful summer evening. The air was soft, balmy, sweet; a light breeze whispered delicate suggestions, and wooed to pleasant thoughts and tender fancies; a crescent moon, shining low over the trees on to the water, brought to the scene that touch of sentiment which is the very breath of poetry and romance. It was a night for lovers! Love, pa.s.sion, sighs, smiles, fond hopes, fervent vows, eloquent prayers, the gentle rain of happy tears--all were in the enchanted atmosphere of the place that night.

It was one of those magical nights on which the heart is likely to be easily and perhaps profoundly stirred, and Gilbert Eversleigh, with the woman he loved by his side, was in a frame of mind to respond only too quickly to its influence. He longed to speak to Kitty, to tell her that he loved her, to ask her to unite her life with his, to press her dear hand, to taste the sweetness of her lips; but he forced himself to silence, though the restraint he imposed on his desire for utterance made it but gain the greater strength.

It may be that Kitty suspected she was on the edge of a crisis, for she too was quiet, and for the first time in her life somehow felt shy with Gilbert. Of course she did not require any one to tell her that he loved her, and more than once she had asked herself if she loved him, and she had answered "Yes." Thus, though words of love had never pa.s.sed between them, she was none the less conscious of the existence of their love.

And this made life joy, even if there was at the back of her mind a tremulous maidenly sensitiveness which made her half afraid of her happiness. An instinct of reserve now warned her to say or do nothing which could be taken by Gilbert as an opening.

Therefore a sort of constraint fell upon them, but still there was a sweetness about it; for was there not a nearness and an intimacy in the dreamy brooding silence, the outward sign of this constraint, which was only possible between true lovers?

And thus they sat for some minutes, apart and yet together.

It was Kitty herself who spoke first. Her thought of Gilbert a.s.sociated itself with that other subject about which she was also so glad--the coming of her father, and it was of him she spoke.

"Do you remember my father, Gilbert?" she asked.

"Perfectly," replied Gilbert. "I had just come back from school for the last time, and--he was very kind to me. Of course, I remember him quite well. And--and--it was then that he brought you to our house."

"That was seven years ago," said Kitty. "Seven years! I haven't seen him for all these years. I wonder if he is much changed? He will see a great change in me. I was only a girl, a little girl, then, and now I am a woman."

As she uttered the last words she glanced a little apprehensively at her companion, for she felt she had perhaps given him an opportunity. She saw his face was clouded; his eyes were fixed on a point in the distance, and he did not speak.

"Your father's return," at length said he, with a sigh, "will make a difference, I fear."

"In what way?" inquired Kitty, not at once following hard on the track of what was pa.s.sing in his mind.

"He will take you from us," said Gilbert; and then he added, inconsequently and involuntarily, "I wonder if he will like me?"

And the girl now understood.

"Like you! Of course he will," she exclaimed, in a tone which made him proud and happy.

There was an emphasis in her voice which seemed to a.s.sert that it would be impossible for her father to criticise him--at all events adversely.

"It would mean so much to me," he exclaimed, turning towards her.

Kitty stole a glance at him, and she observed that his face was no longer clouded, but bore a grave, questioning expression like that of a man in doubt with regard to some deeply serious matter.

"It would mean all the world to me," he said, meeting her glance.

"Why?" rose to Kitty's lips, but the words went no further. For as Gilbert kept his gaze fastened upon her, a subtle change was worked in his eyes; they were no longer shaded with doubt or anxious inquiry; they searched and challenged her with pa.s.sionate appeal; they unmistakably asked the question of questions man can put to woman.

And though no sound pa.s.sed Kitty Thornton's lips, she made no pretence of misunderstanding him. All the woman in her instantaneously rose up in quick response. All the love in her heart suddenly surged up in a great wave of feeling which flooded her eyes, now deep pools of light, with an unmistakable answer to the unmistakable question in his, thus bent upon her. Yet she trembled slightly, for she felt herself in the grasp of something new and strange and delightful, but just a little terrible and alarming.

And when Gilbert Eversleigh saw what he saw in Kitty's eyes, self-control became impossible, and he could restrain himself no longer.

"Kitty, Kitty," he said, in a deep earnest voice which thrilled the girl as she listened--"Kitty, my darling, I love you, I love you!"

Kitty trembled still more, and lowered her eyes shyly--perhaps to hide the light that glowed in them.

"Kitty," he said, his voice somewhat uncertain for an instant as he looked at her downcast face--"Kitty, my dear, you must know that I love you. Now that I have said it, I should like to go on for ever saying 'I love you, I love you!' You are everything to me--everything to me," he repeated, with a lover's fond iteration. "Oh, my dear, tell me that you love me!"

Kitty raised her eyes.

"Listen to me a moment, Kitty," said Gilbert, who had seen the message she flashed to him, and was greatly encouraged thereby. "Let me tell you all that is in my heart."

The girl now looked at him, some wonder in her glance, as she asked herself if he had not said already all that was in his heart, but as he went on she saw what he meant.

"I love you better than life," he began, "but I am not sure that I have done right in saying to you what I have said. I had not intended----I was carried away ..." And he paused.

"What is it?" asked Kitty, and there was such childlike trust and innocence in the way she made this inquiry that he had to put strong compulsion on himself to keep from placing his arm round her waist and drawing her toward him.

"You have spoken two or three times to-day about your father," replied Gilbert, "and each time you gave me, without knowing it, a pang, because, Kitty dear, I am afraid that he may not think me good enough for you, not rich enough, not placed high enough, for you. I had intended to wait until he came before speaking to you--I suppose I ought to have asked his permission to address you first. Do you see, Kitty?

But to-night--well, I found I could wait no longer, and so must tell you all that was in my heart. Your father may blame me, Kitty. He might say that you should see far more of life than you have before even thinking of marriage. Yet, Kitty, after all it rests with you. Kitty, Kitty, what do you say, my darling? I cannot help loving you--I can never cease to love you. Tell me, do you love me? Say you love me!"

And he put forth his hand with a gesture of entreaty.

Long before this Kitty's shyness had fallen from her, her maidenly hesitation had disappeared. She had a feeling that Gilbert Eversleigh had been fore-ordained her lover before the foundations of the earth were laid--so vast was the certainty that filled her mind. The very statement of the difficulty in which he found himself with regard to her father helped her inevitably to this conclusion. It was n.o.ble of him, she thought, to take this att.i.tude, and if he had not been able to stick to it, was she the one to condemn him for it? No, indeed.

"You are more to me, Gilbert," she said, quietly but firmly, "than my father--than all the fathers in the world. You are everything to me, just as I am everything to you."

As she spoke, she inclined towards him with a beautiful movement of surrender and invitation.

He caught her in his arms and strained her yielding form in his embrace; their lips met and met again; a sweet agitation which grew into an ecstasy possessed them both; they seemed to reach and stand on a pinnacle of brightness and delight far removed from the grey levels on which moved ordinary men and women through the shadows of life; they murmured to each other the sweet foolish things that lovers always murmur, and in their ears never was diviner music.

And as for Morris Thornton--why, Kitty said that he would be proud of Gilbert, and the very first thing she would do on his arrival would be to tell him that she was engaged.

"Of course," added Kitty, "he will be pleased, because I am pleased."

"Are you still here?" asked Ernest Eversleigh, who with his sister now walked up to the bench where the lovers were sitting. "We thought you were coming on after us, and we waited for you for some time, but as you did not turn up we came back again."

And thus were the lovers brought down to the everyday world.

"Is it time to go in?" asked Gilbert, who was unamiably wishing his brother at Jericho.

"I should think it is--particularly if you intend to catch a train to town to-night," replied Ernest.

"Let us go in," said Kitty, rising from the seat and linking her arm with that of Helen, somewhat to Gilbert's astonishment, until it occurred to him that she might wish to tell the other girl what had happened.

The party--the girls first, the brothers in the rear--now returned to Ivydene, where on their entrance into the house they encountered Francis Eversleigh, looking haggard and ghastly; he had felt too unutterably wretched to stay in his room where his wife in vain sought to tend and soothe him, and had come downstairs to see if he could not find some distraction.

Gilbert moved up to Kitty's side, and, as the two stood together, their faces were tell-tale.

"Father," said Gilbert, blushing furiously, "Kitty has promised to be my wife."

Helen Eversleigh rushed forward and threw her arms round Kitty's neck, exclaiming, "Oh, you dear!" while Ernest warmly shook his brother's hand, but their father stood stock-still. He tried to speak, but the words were choked in his throat. Again he essayed to say something, but could not. With a groan he suddenly turned from them and fled upstairs.

"Father!" exclaimed Gilbert, calling after him. "What can be the matter with him, I wonder?" he said to Ernest, who merely answered that he could not tell.