At last we could bear the
suspense no longer. With one look at the queen and another at me,
Sapt stepped on to the gravel. He would go and learn the answer;
thus the unendurable strain that had stretched us like tortured
men on a rack would be relieved. The queen did not answer his
glance, nor even seem to see that he had moved. Her eyes were
still all for Mr. Rassendyll, her thoughts buried in his; for her
happiness was in his hands and lay poised on the issue of that
decision whose momentousness held him for a moment motionless on
the path. Often I seem to see him as he stood there, tall,
straight, and stately, the king a man's fancy paints when he
reads of great monarchs who flourished long ago in the springtime
of the world.
Sapt's step crunched on the gravel. Rudolf heard it and turned
his head. He saw Sapt, and he saw me also behind Sapt. He smiled
composedly and brightly, but he did not move from where he was.
He held out both hands towards the constable and caught him in
their double grasp, still smiling down in his face. I was no
nearer to reading his decision, though I saw that he had reached
a resolution that was immovable and gave peace to his soul. If he
meant to go on he would go on now, on to the end, without a
backward look or a falter of his foot; if he had chosen the other
way, he would depart without a murmur or a hesitation.
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