"Hold me close, Ban! Don't ever let me go again! Don't ever let me doubt
again!"
When, at length, she gently released herself, her foot brushed the
fallen book. She picked it up tenderly, and caressed its leaves as she
adjusted them.
"Didn't the Voices tell you that I'd come back, Ban?" she asked.
He shook his head. "If they did, I couldn't hear them."
"But they sang to you," she insisted gently. "They never stopped
singing, did they?"
"No. No. They never stopped singing."
"Ah; then you ought to have known, Ban. And I ought to have known that
you couldn't have done what I believed you had. Are you sure you forgive
me, Ban?"
She told him of what she had discovered, of the talk with Russell
Edmonds ("I've a letter from him for you, dearest one; he loves you,
too. But not as I do. Nobody could!" interjected Io jealously), of the
clue of the telegram. And he told her of Camilla Van Arsdale and the
long deception; and at that, for the first time since he knew her, she
broke down and gave herself up utterly to tears, as much for him as for
the friend whom he had so loyally loved and served. When it was over and
she had regained command of herself, she said:
"Now you must take me to her."
So once more they rode together into the murmurous peace of the forest.
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