"I understand," she said, "I understand. Don't try to explain!
Can't you see that it's enough to--to see you as you are--?"
Loder was surprised. Remembering their last passionate scene,
and the damper Chilcote's subsequent presence must inevitably
have cast upon it, he had expected to be doubtfully received;
but the reality of the reception left him bewildered. Eve's
manner was not that of the ill-used wife; its vehemence, its
note of desire and depreciation, were more suggestive of his
own ardent seizing of the present, as distinguished from past
or future. With an odd sense of confusion he turned to her
afresh.
"Then I am forgiven?" he said. And unconsciously, as he moved
nearer, he touched her arm.
At his touch she started. All the yielding sweetness, all the
submission, that had marked her two nights ago was gone; in
its place she was possessed by a curious excitement that
stirred while it perplexed.
Loder, moved by the sensation, took another step forward.
"Then I am forgiven?" he repeated, more softly.
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