“I doubt if the yokel really saw us. But, if so, he would find nothing strange in your being here with your maid. If he saw me, he would suppose I was your uncle or some visitor. But I will take all precautions, dear, if only to make your mind easy. I wouldn’t have you suffer the least fear, not even for the sake of that look of solicitude in your eyes, which is certainly the tenderest, most heavenly look that a woman or an angel can bestow. It goes to my inmost heart, and binds me to you for ever. And yet I’d have you smile, for all that, if you’d be happier smiling.”
“I might be happier smiling, but I think I should not be as concerned for you then,” replied Georgiana, simply, and with a smile that had a little sadness in it.
“Ah, my dearest!” said Everell, softly, with a sudden tremor in his voice.
The silence that followed might have been longer but that the young man could not forget, for more than a few seconds at a time, how brief their interview was to be. He imagined, perhaps mistakenly, that the value of such meetings was to be measured in speeches rather than in silences, although he attached full worth to eloquent glances.
“When I feel how dull the hours are between these short glimpses of heaven,” said he, “I marvel to think how tedious the years must have been before I saw you, though I knew it not.—I never chafed at danger till now. Sometimes when I lie in the bracken yonder, or pace the dark bottom of the glen, I am tempted to ignore all risks, come boldly to your house, seek the acquaintance of your uncle, and measure my happiness by hours instead of minutes.”
“Nay, have no fear, sweet. Your commands are sacred with me—till you command me to leave you, or not to love you.”
“But if I commanded you earnestly to leave?—resolutely, so that you knew I meant it?”
“Would that I had! I ought to have. But would it be useless?”
“As useless as it would be cruel, sweet, I vow to you.”
“But ’tis cruel to let you stay. ’Tis a wonder your presence in the neighbourhood isn’t known already—a wonder the poacher hasn’t betrayed you.”
“Nay, he is true as steel. We are in the same galley—both rebels, he against the game laws and the world’s injustice, I against the present dynasty. You must know, we outlaws stand together.—You are again in the mood of fearing for my safety. But see how baseless your fears have been so far. Trust our stars, dearest: mine, at least, has ever been fortunate.”