Aye, and in that wondrous moment which you promised should soon come,
when you would have said: 'Take me! I have been ever thine. Our Lady
hath kept me for thee!' mine honour would have been smirched forever
had I, keeping silence, taken advantage of thy belief in words which
that old nun had herself invented, and put into the mouth of the
blessed Virgin. The Bishop held me selfish because I put mine honour
before my need of thee. He said I saw naught but mine own proud face,
in the bright mirror of my silver shield. But"--the Knight held his
right hand aloft, and spoke in solemn tones--"methinks I see there the
face of God, or the nearest I know to His face; and, behind Him, I see
thy face, mine own beloved. I needs must put this, which I owe to
honour and to our mutual trust, before mine own content, and utter need
of thee. I should be shamed, did I do otherwise, to call thee wife of
mine, to think of thee as mistress of my home, and of my heart the
Queen."
Mora's hand had sought the Bishop's letter; but now she let it lie
concealed. She could not dim the noble triumph of that moment, by any
revelation of her previous knowledge. Had Hugh failed, she must have
produced the first letter. Hugh having proved faithful, it might well
wait.
A long silence fell between them. Mora, fingering the cross, looked on
it with unseeing eyes. To Hugh it seemed that this token of her high
office was becoming to her a thing of first importance.
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