For a moment he stood still, startled as if he had seen a
vision, and his sight became blurred. When it cleared, Mona had come a
step nearer to him, and then he saw her clearly. He caught his breath as
though Life had burst upon him with some staggering revelation. If she
had been a woman of genius, as in her way Kitty Tynan was, she would have
spoken before he had a chance to do so. Instead, she wished to see how
he would greet her, to hear what he would say. She was afraid of him
now. It was not her gift to do the right thing by perfect instinct;
she had to think things out; and so she did now. Still it has to be said
for her that she also had a strange, deep sense of apprehension in the
presence of the man whose arms had held her fast, and then let her go
for so bitter a length of time, in which her pride was lacerated and her
heart brought low. She did not know how she was going to be met now, and
a womanly shyness held her back. If she had said one word--his name
only--it might have made a world of difference to them both at that
moment; for he was tortured by failure, and now when hope was gone, here
was the woman whom he had left in order to force gifts from fate to bring
himself back to her.
"You--you here!" he exclaimed hoarsely.
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