So she feared as she stood in the sunshine, watching the now empty
archway through which her sole remaining link with Convent life had
vanished; conscious, without looking round, that Debbie, who had been
curtseying behind her, was there no longer; that Martin Goodfellow, who
had held Shulamite's bridle while the Bishop mounted, had disappeared
in one direction, the rest of the men in another; intensely conscious
that she and Hugh were now alone; and fearing, she shivered again, as
she had shivered in the crypt; then, of a sudden, knew that she had
done so, and, with a swift impulse of shame and contrition, turned and
looked at Hugh.
He was indeed the "splendid Knight" of Mary Antony's vision! He had
donned for his bridal the dress of white and silver, which he had last
put on when he supped at the Palace with the Bishop. This set off,
with striking effect, his dark head and the noble beauty of his
countenance; and Mora, who chiefly remembered him as a handsome youth,
graceful and gay, realised for the first time his splendour as a man,
and the change wrought in him by all he had faced, endured, and
overcome.
In the crypt, the day before, and during the hours which followed, she
had scarce let herself look at him; and he, though always close beside
her, had kept out of her immediate range of vision.
Since that infolding clasp in the crypt when he had flung the cloak
about her, not once had he touched her, until the Church just now bade
him, with authority, to take her right hand, with his.
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