'
'But you have not said when it is to be?'
'To-morrow morning. Name a time, will you, and bind me to it? I
want you to fix an hour, because I am weak, and may otherwise try
to get out of it.' She added a little artificial laugh, which
showed how timorous her resolution was still.
'Well, say after breakfast--at eleven o'clock.'
'Yes, eleven o'clock. I promise you. Bind me strictly to my
word.'
Chapter XXVIII
'I lull a fancy, trouble-tost.'
Miss Swancourt, it is eleven o'clock.'
She was looking out of her dressing-room window on the first
floor, and Knight was regarding her from the terrace balustrade,
upon which he had been idly sitting for some time--dividing the
glances of his eye between the pages of a book in his hand, the
brilliant hues of the geraniums and calceolarias, and the open
window above-mentioned.
'Yes, it is, I know. I am coming.'
He drew closer, and under the window.
'How are you this morning, Elfride? You look no better for your
long night's rest.'
She appeared at the door shortly after, took his offered arm, and
together they walked slowly down the gravel path leading to the
river and away under the trees.
Her resolution, sustained during the last fifteen hours, had been
to tell the whole truth, and now the moment had come.
Step by step they advanced, and still she did not speak. They
were nearly at the end of the walk, when Knight broke the silence.
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