Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/134

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132
THE BOND

note, Teresa looking over his shoulder; then caught up his hat and hurried Teresa away, locking the door behind him.

It was a moonlight night, and they took a boat and rowed about the smooth bay. Teresa was silent. Once she began to sing Schubert's "Water Song," but the light music faltered and died; and she sang instead the "König im Thule," sang it dreamily and mysteriously; then the marvellous plaint of Gretchen's disturbed heart for the absent Faust. And then, "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai," and here she broke down and cried passionately:

"Oh, we have only had a year!"

Basil shipped his oars, and moved nearer her in the rocking boat.

"Upset it, and let us both drown!" she cried.

"Dearest—my sweetheart—don't be a blazing idiot—you're cold, you're shivering—we'll go in, and I'll comfort you, my own——"

"I never wanted to marry you anyway," she cried.

"But you did. Wrap that coat round you, you foolish girl."

He bent to the oars and sent the boat leaping along the track of the moon toward the pier. In a few moments they were in their room at the inn, and Basil made Teresa drink half a wine-glass of brandy. He wrapped her in blankets,