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.