soft contours of her virginal breasts, the bracelets
that had been her mother's -- enamelled in black on
old, reddish gold -- encircled her smooth wrists.

He would have hurried her at once into the buggy,
but she stopped him, and stood facing him with level,
solemn eyes:

"I give myself to you, Gordon," she said, "gladly
and gladly, and I will go wherever you go, and
try all my life to be what you would like." As she
repeated her simple words, erect and brave, with her
arms filled with roses, for a fleeting second he was
again conscious of the vague menace that had towered
darkly at her back on the night when she had
laid in his grasp that other rose... the rose that
had faded.

"Let's get along," he urged. The whip swung
out across the roan's ears, and the horse started forward
with a vicious rush. The dewy fragrance of
the flowers trailed out behind the buggy, mingling
with the swirling dust, then both settled into the
empty road, under the burning brightness of the
sun, the insensate beauty of the azure sky.

[[145]]

p144 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p145w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p146

v?