The sight gave an added bitterness to Cecil's meditations.
"After all," he thought, "life is so short,--a shadow fleeting onward to the night,--and love is so sweet! Why not open my heart to the bliss it brings? The black ending comes so soon! Why not fling all thought of consequences to the winds, and gather into my arms the love that is offered me? why not know its warmth and thrill for one golden moment, even though that moment ends in death?"
The blood rushed wildly through his veins, but he resolutely put down the temptation. No, he would be faithful, he would not allow himself even to think of such a thing.
Reluctantly, as before, the sentinels made way for him and he went on through the wood to the trysting-place, for such it had come to be. She was waiting. But there was no longer the glad illumination of face, the glad springing forward to meet him. She advanced shyly, a delicate color in her cheek, a tremulous grace in her manner, that he had not observed before; the consciousness of love had come to her and made her a woman. Never had she seemed so fair to Cecil; yet his resolution did not falter.
"I have come, you see,--come to tell you that I can come no more, and to talk with you about your future."
"Are you going away?" she asked sorrowfully, "and shall I never see you again?"
"I cannot come back," he replied gently. The sight of her suffering cut him to the heart.
"It has been much to see you," he continued, while she stood before him, looking downward, without reply. "It has been like meeting one of my own people. I shall never forget you."
She raised her head and strove to answer, but the words died on her lips. How he loathed himself, talking so smoothly to her while he hungered to take her in his arms and tell her how he loved her!
"I hope you will be happy with Snoqualmie, and--"
She lifted her eyes with a sudden light flashing in their black depths.
"Do you want me to hate him? Never speak his name to me again!"
"He is to be your husband; nay, it is the wish of your father, and the great sachems approve it."
"Can the sachems put love in my heart? Can the sachems make my heart receive him as its lord? Ah, this bitter custom of the father giving his daughter to whomsoever he will, as if she were a dog! And your lips sanction it!"