For a moment he yielded, speaking, with his face pressed against her,
words of love beyond her imagining.
Then he regained control.
"Oh, hush, my beloved!" he said. "Hold me not! Let me go, or our Lady
knoweth I shall even now fail in the task which lies before me."
"Our Lord, Who knoweth the heart of a man," she said, "hath made my man
so strong that he will not fail."
But she let him go; and rising, the Knight stood before her.
"The letter brought to me by Brother Philip," he began, "told me
something of that which I am about to tell thee. But I could not speak
of it to thee until I knew it in fullest detail, and had consulted with
the Bishop concerning its possible effect upon thy future. Hence my
instant departure to Worcester. That which I now shall tell thee, I
had, in each particular, from the Bishop in most secret conversations.
He and I, alone, know of this matter."
Then with his arms folded upon his breast, his eye fixed upon the sunny
garden, beyond the window, deep sorrow, compunction, and, at times, awe
in his voice, Hugh d'Argent recited the entire history of the pretended
vision; beginning with the hiding of herself of old Antony in the inner
cell, her anxiety concerning the Reverend Mother, confided to the
Bishop; his chance remark, resulting in the old woman's cunningly
devised plan to cheat the Prioress into accepting happiness.
And, as he told it, the horror of the sacrilege fell as a dark shadow
between them, eclipsing even the radiance of their love.
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