The Vehement Flame by Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
page 68 of 464 (14%)
page 68 of 464 (14%)
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hers. Her eyes closed, and her passion answered his, and all that he
whispered. Yet while he kissed her, her eyes opened and she looked furtively beyond him, toward that gathering blackness. They lay there together in the starlit dark, for a long time, his head on her breast. Sometimes she thrilled at his touch or low word, and sometimes she held his hand against her lips and kissed it--which made him protest--but suddenly he said, "By George! Nelly, I believe we are going to have a shower!" Instantly she was alert with fright, and sat up, and looked down into the valley, where the heat lightning, which had been winking along the line of the hills, suddenly sharpened into a flash. "_Oh!_" she said, and held her breath until, from very far off, came a faint grumble of thunder. "Oh, Maurice!" she said, "it is horrible to be out here--if it thunders!" "We won't be. Well go into the cabin, and we'll hear the rain on the roof, and the clash of the branches; and we'll see the lightning through the chinks--and I'll have you! Oh, Nelly, we shall be part of the storm!--and nothing in God's world can separate us." But this time she could not answer with any elemental impulse; she had no understanding of "being part of the storm"; instead, she watched the horizon. "Oh!" she said, flinching. "I don't like it. What shall we do? Maurice, it _is_ going to thunder!" "I think I did feel a drop of rain," he said,--and held out his hand: "Yes, Star, rain! It's begun!" He helped her to her feet, gathered up some of the cushions, and hurried her toward the little shelter. She ran |
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