Then--as suddenly startled and terrified--she tried to jump up quickly, away from him, he put out his hand and succeeded in capturing her wrists and thus holding her pinioned and still kneeling close beside him. "An angel of goodness," he said, "and exquisitely beautiful." At his words, at the renewed pressure of his hand upon her wrists she made a violent effort to recover her composure. "I pray you, my lord, let go my hands. They were clasped in prayer for your safety. You slept so soundly that I feared I could not wake you in order to tell you that you must leave this house instantly." "I will go, Gilda," he said quietly, making no attempt to move or to relax his hold on her, "for this brief interval of sleep, your kind ministrations and the food you gave me have already put new strength into me. And the sight of you kneeling and praying near me has put life into me again." "Then, since you are better," she rejoined coldly, "I pray you rise, my lord, and make ready to go. The garden is quite lonely, the Oude Gracht at its furthest boundary is more lonely still. The hour is late and the city is asleep ... you would be quite safe now." "Do not send me away yet, Gilda, just when a breath of happiness--the first I have tasted for four years--has been wafted from heaven upon me. May I not stay here awhile and live for a brief moment in a dream which is born of unforgettable memories?" "It is not safe for you to stay here, my lord," she said coldly. "My lord? You used to call me Willem once." "That was long ago, my lord, ere you gave Walburg de Marnix the sole right to call you by tender names." "She has deserted me, Gilda. Fled from me like a coward, leaving me to bear my misery alone." "She shared your misery for four years, my lord; it was your disgrace that she could not endure." "You knew then that she had left me?" "My father had heard of it." "Then you know that I am a free man again?" "The law no doubt will soon make you so." "The law has already freed me through Walburg's own act of desertion. You know our laws as well as I do, Gilda. If you have any doubt ask your own father whose business it is to administer them. Walburg de Marnix has set me free, free to begin a new life, free to follow at last the dictates of my heart." "For the moment, my lord," she retorted coldly, "you are not free even to live your old life." "I would not live it again, Gilda, now that I have seen you again. The past seems even now to be falling away from me. Dreams and memories are stronger than reality. And you, Gilda ... have you forgotten?" "I have forgotten nothing, my lord." "Our love--your vows--that day in June when you yielded your lips to my kiss?" "Nor that dull autumnal day, my lord, when I heard from the lips of strangers that in order to further your own ambitious schemes you had cast me aside like a useless shoe, and had married another woman who was richer and of nobler birth than I."