Theodora said nothing; but she took courage and peeped at him again. And she thought how powerful he looked, and how beautifully shaped; and she liked the fineness of the silk of his socks and his shirt, and the cut of his clothes, and the wave of his hair--and last of all, his brown, strong, well-shaped hands. And then she fell to wondering what the general scheme of things could be that made husbands possess none of these charms; when, if they did, it could all be so good and so delicious, instead of a terribly irksome duty to live with them and be their wives. "You are not listening to a word I am saying!" said Hector. "Where were your thoughts, cruel lady?" She was confused a little, and laughed gently. "They were away in a land where you can never come," she said. He raised himself on his elbow, and supported his head on his hand, while he answered, eagerly: "But I must come! I want to know them, all your thoughts. Do you know that since we met on Monday you have never been for one instant out of my consciousness. And you would not listen then to what I told you of friendship when it is born of instantaneous sympathy--it is because in some other life two souls have been very near and dear. And that is our case, and I want to make you feel it so, as I do. Tell me that you do--?" "I do not know what I do feel," said Theodora. "But perhaps--could it be true that we met when we lived before; and when was that? and who were we?" "It matters not a jot," said he. "So long as you feel it too--that we are not only of yesterday, you and I. There is some stronger link between us." For one second they looked into each other's eyes, and each read the other's thoughts mirrored there; and if his said, in conscious, passionate words, "I love you," hers were troubled and misty with possibilities. Then she jumped up from her seat suddenly, and her voice trembled a little as she said: "And now I want to go out of the wood." He rose too and stood beside her, while he pointed to the glade to the left of the centre they were facing. "We must penetrate into the future then," he said, "because I told my chauffeur to meet us on the road where I think that will lead to. We cannot go back by the way we have come." And she did not answer; she was afraid, because she remembered all those avenues were barred by--love. As he walked beside her, Hector Bracondale knew that now he must be very, very careful in what he said. He must lull her fears to sleep again, or she would be off like a lark towards high heaven, and he would be left upon earth. So he exerted himself to interest and amuse her in less agitating ways. He talked of his home and his mother and his sister. He wanted Theodora to meet them. She would like Anne, he said, and his mother would love her, he knew. And again the impossible vision same to him, and he felt he hated the face of Morella Winmarleigh.