She drew his arm about her shoulders again.

“You will spoil it if you go away.  Oh!  Garth, you dear, foolish man!  When will you understand that love is the only thing that matters?  If you had committed all the sins in the Decalogue, I shouldn’t care!  You’re mine now”—­jealously—­“my lover.  And I’m not going to be thrust out of your life for some stupid scruple.  Let the past take care of itself.  The present is ours.  And—­and I love you, Garth!”

It was difficult to reason coolly with her arms about him, her lips so near his own, and his great love for her pulling at his heart.  But he made one further effort.

“If you should ever regret it, Sara?” he whispered.  “I don’t think I could bear that.”

She looked at him with steady eyes.

“You will not have it to bear,” she said.  “I shall never regret it.”

Still he hesitated.  But the dawn of a great hope grew and deepened in his face.

“If you could be content to live here—­at Far End . . .  It is just possible!” He spoke reflectively, as though debating the matter with himself.  “The curse has not followed me to this quiet little corner of the earth.  Perhaps—­after all . . .  Sara, could you stand such a life?  Or would you always be longing to get out into the great world?  As I’ve told you, the world is shut to me.  There’s that in my past which blocks the way to any future.  Have you the faith—­the courage—­to face that?”

Her eyes, steadfast and serene, met his.

“I have courage to face anything—­with you, Garth.  But I haven’t courage to face living without you.”

He bent his head and kissed her on the mouth—­a slow, lingering kiss that held something far deeper and more enduring than mere passion.  And Sara, as she kissed him back, her soul upon her lips, felt as though together they had partaken of love’s holy sacrament.

“Beloved”—­Garth’s voice, unspeakably tender, came to her through the exquisite silence of the moment—­“Beloved, it shall be as you wish.  Whether I am right or wrong in taking this great gift you offer me—­God knows!  If I am wrong—­then, please Heaven, whatever punishment there be may fall on me alone.”

CHAPTER XXIII

A SUMMER IDYLL

The summer, of all seasons of the year, is very surely the perfect time for lovers, and to Sara the days that followed immediately upon her engagement to Garth Trent were days of unalloyed happiness.

These were wonderful hours which they passed together, strolling through the summer-foliaged woods, or lazing on the sun-baked sands, or, perhaps, roaming the range of undulating cliffs that stretched away to the west from the headland where Far End stood guard.

During those hours of intimate companionship, Sara began to learn the hidden deeps of Garth’s nature, discovering the almost romantic delicacy of thought that underlay his harsh exterior.