Fair Margaret by H. Rider Haggard--Delphi Classics (Illustrated) by H. Rider Haggard

Author:H. Rider Haggard [HAGGARD, H. RIDER]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 32 of 72 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XV

PETER PLAYS A PART

“Stop,” said Peter from the shadow of the doorway, “I fear this business, Inez, and I do not understand why it is needful. Why cannot you say what you have to say here?”

“Are you mad?” she answered almost fiercely through her veil. “Do you think that it can be any pleasure for me to seem to make love to a stone shaped like a man, for whom I care nothing at all — except as a friend?” she added quickly. “I tell you, Señor Peter, that if you do not do as I tell you, you will never hear what I have to say, for I shall be held to have failed in my business, and within a few minutes shall vanish from you for ever — to my death perhaps; but what does that matter to you? Choose now, and quickly, for I cannot stand thus for long.”

“I obey you, God forgive me!” said the distraught Peter from the darkness of the doorway; “but must I really —— ?”

“Yes, you must,” she answered with energy, “and some would not think that so great a penance.”

Then she lifted the corner of her veil coyly and, peeping out beneath it, called in a soft, clear voice, “Oh! forgive me, dear friend, if I have run too fast for you, forgetting that you are still so very weak. Here, lean upon me; I am frail, but it may serve.” And she passed up the steps again, to reappear in another moment with Peter’s hand resting on her shoulder.

“Be careful of these steps,” she said, “they are so slippery” — a statement to which Peter, whose pale face had grown suddenly red, murmured a hearty assent. “Do not be afraid,” she went on in her flute-like voice; “this is the secret garden, where none can hear words, however sweet, and none can see even a caress, no, not the most jealous woman. That is why in old days it was called the Sultana’s Chamber, for there at the end of it was where she bathed in the summer season. What say you of spies? Oh! yes, in the palace there are many, but to look towards this place, even for the Guardian of the Women, was always death. Here there are no witnesses, save the flowers and the birds.”

As she spoke thus they reached the central path, and passed up it slowly, Peter’s hand still upon the shoulder of Inez, and her white arm about him, while she looked up into his eyes.

“Bend closer over me,” she whispered, “for truly your face is like that of a wooden saint,” and he bent. “Now,” she went on, “listen. Your lady lives, and is well — kiss me on the lips, please, that news is worth it. If you shut your eyes you can imagine that I am she.”

Again Peter obeyed, and with a better grace than might have been expected.

“She is a prisoner in this same palace,” she went on,

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