"My dear Lord!" said she, in a faint voice, "so thou art come to me again!"
"I have come, Anna, but to bid thee farewell." Her large eyes dilated with sudden alarm and grief.
"I told thee, Anna, that in Orkney we might have to separate for a time, ere I could convey thee to my household and my home. The wind is blowing right across the stormy Frith toward the mainland of Scotland, and though love cries ho! my skipper is urgent, and still more so is stern necessity. Farewell for a time--for a brief time, sweet Anna, I must leave thee," continued the Earl kissing her repeatedly to pacify her.
Her beauty was very alluring, and until that moment he knew not how deep was his passion for her.
"In that busy world of turmoil and intrigue on which thou art about to re-enter--I will be forgotten. Thou mayest not return to me, and I--I will"----
"Speak not, think not thus, dearest Anna!" replied Bothwell, who felt his resolution wavering, though the thoughts of ambition and the taunts of Ormiston urged him on the path he had commenced. "We must separate--but we must meet again."
"Well, be it so!" she said, bending her eyes that were blinded with tears upon him; "but O, Bothwell! thou art dearer to me than life, and knowest all that I have sacrificed for thee,--home--friends--myself--every thing"----
"True--true, Anna;" he was touched to the soul by her manner and accent.
"Then leave me not--but take me with thee. I will go happily in the meanest disguise thou mayest assign me--O, I will never be discovered!"
"It may not be, Anna; it is impossible. By St. Paul! I tell thee it is impossible at present."
"In the confidence of thy love I have been dreaming a pleasant dream, and now perhaps am waking from it. Wilt thou love me in thine absence as thou dost now?"
"After my solemn espousal of thee before that holy hermit--canst thou doubt it?" rejoined the Earl, in a voice that faltered with very shame, though to Anna it seemed that grief had rendered it tremulous in tone. The supposed emotion inspired her with sudden confidence in him, and she said--
"Go--and never again will I suspect thy love; but oh! when wilt thou return to me?"
"By Yule-tide, dear Anna, if I am in life;" and, kissing her once again, he hurried from her presence like one who had been guilty of a crime, and--returned no more!