since
that first moment when I saw you walking by the stone wall with the jug
in your hands. You were made for me, created for me! I will love you
till I die! Oh, Em, do not be so cold, so cruel to me!"

He held her arm so tightly that her fingers relaxed their hold, and the
cloak fluttered down on to the ground, and the wind played more roughly
than ever with the little yellow head.

"I do love you very much," she said; "but I do not know if I want to
marry you. I love you better than Waldo, but I can't tell if I love you
better than Lyndall. If you would let me wait for a week I think perhaps
I could tell you."

Gregory picked up the cloak and wrapped it round her.

"If you could but love me as I love you," he said; "but no woman can
love as a man can. I will wait till Saturday. I will not once come near
you till then. Good-bye! Oh, Em," he said, turning again, and twining
his arm about her, and kissing her surprised little mouth, "if you are
not my wife I cannot live. I have never loved another woman, and I never
shall!--never, never!"

"You make me afraid," said Em. "Come, let us go, and I will fill your
pail."

"I want no milk. Good-bye! You will not see me again till Saturday."

Late that night, when every one else had gone to bed, the yellow-haired
little woman stood alone in the kitchen. She had come to fill the kettle
for the next morning's coffee, and now stood before the fire. The warm
reflection lit the grave old-womanish little face, that was so unusually
thoughtful this evening.

"Better than all the world; better than everything; he loves me better
than everything!" She said the words aloud, as if they were more easy
to believe if she spoke them so. She had given out so much love in her
little life, and had got none of it back with interest. Now one said, "I
love you better than all the world." One loved her better than she loved
him. How suddenly rich she was. She kept clasping and unclasping her
hands. So a beggar feels who falls asleep on the pavement wet and
hungry, and who wakes in a palace-hall with servants and lights, and a
feast before him. Of course the beggar's is only a dream, and he wakes
from it; and this was real.

Gregory had said to her, "I will love you as long as I live." She said
the words over and over to herself like a song.

"I will send for him tomorrow, and I will tell him how I love him back,"
she said.

But Em needed not to send for him. Gregory discovered on reach