Brother Philip stood in the doorway, bowing low.
"Come in, my good Philip," said the Bishop; "come in, and shut the
door. . . . I must have thy report with fullest detail; but, time
being short, I would ask thee to begin from the moment when the
battlements of Castle Norelle came into view."
CHAPTER XLVIII
A STRANGE CHANCE
On the fourth day of her husband's absence, Mora climbed to the
battlements to watch the glories of a most gorgeous sunset.
Also she loved to find herself again there where she and Hugh had spent
that wonderful hour in the moonlight, when she had told him of the
vision, and afterwards had given him the promise that on the morrow he
should take her to his home.
She paused in the low archway at the top of the winding stair,
remembering how she had turned a moment there, to whisper: "I love
thee." Ah, how often she had said it since: "Dear man of mine, I love
thee! Come back to me safe; come back to me soon; I love thee!"
That he should have had to leave her just as her love was ready to
respond to his, had caused that love to grow immeasurably in depth and
intensity.
Also she now realised, more fully, his fine self-control, his
chivalrous consideration for her, his noble unselfishness. From the
first, he had been so perfect to her; and now her one desire was that,
if her love could give it, he should have his reward.
Ah, when would he come! When would he come!
She could not keep from shading her eyes and looking along the road to
the point where it left the fir wood, though this was but the fourth
day since Hugh's departure--the day on which, by fast riding and long
hours, he might arrive at Worcester--and the ninth was the very
earliest she dared hope for his return.
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