"But it is true that you will go. You will surely. Not because of
those people but because of me. You will go away because you feel
you must."
With every word urging me to get away, her clasp tightened, she
hugged my head closer to her breast. I submitted, knowing well
that I could free myself by one more effort which it was in my
power to make. But before I made it, in a sort of desperation, I
pressed a long kiss into the hollow of her throat. And lo--there
was no need for any effort. With a stifled cry of surprise her
arms fell off me as if she had been shot. I must have been giddy,
and perhaps we both were giddy, but the next thing I knew there was
a good foot of space between us in the peaceful glow of the ground-
glass globes, in the everlasting stillness of the winged figures.
Something in the quality of her exclamation, something utterly
unexpected, something I had never heard before, and also the way
she was looking at me with a sort of incredulous, concentrated
attention, disconcerted me exceedingly. I knew perfectly well what
I had done and yet I felt that I didn't understand what had
happened. I became suddenly abashed and I muttered that I had
better go and dismiss that poor Dominic. She made no answer, gave
no sign. She stood there lost in a vision--or was it a sensation?-
-of the most absorbing kind. I hurried out into the hall,
shamefaced, as if I were making my escape while she wasn't looking.
And yet I felt her looking fixedly at me, with a sort of
stupefaction on her features--in her whole attitude--as though she
had never even heard of such a thing as a kiss in her life.
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