As if he followed her thoughts, as he was always able to do, he had said, looking down,
“I brought you away from all that. Do you regret living in the clouds or would you like to go back?”
“How can you ask me such an absurd question? I am so happy, utterly and completely happy, but afraid.”
“Afraid?” he queried.
“That when you go away I may lose you.”
He had laughed and it was a very tender sound.
“That is impossible! I shall be back just as quickly as it is possible for me to do so and it is only two or perhaps three days out of a lifetime.”
The Duchesse thought bitterly how a ‘lifetime’ had been whittled down to five years.
Five years and then he had found her not good enough for him.
He had thrust her away from him because her blood did not equal that of the high and mighty Mar
