oor, and built a great fire in the chimney, for
I was shivering from head to foot. And I thought of you! Only of you!
Your love for me! The touch of your kind hands! Your dear gray
head!--and before every other thing in life was the thought to do
nothing to shame you, nor to cause a pain to that true heart of yours.
And then I got down on my knees at the bedside like a little child and
prayed to God.

"'O God,' I cried, 'take this pain from my heart, for I can no longer
endure it. It's killing me. It's killing me, here, all alone! away from
Jock Stair! And if You will do this thing I will never ask another of
You in all my days!' Trying to make a compact with my Maker," she
finished, "like a foolish child----"

She heard the clock strike four, and knowing the hour near when he must
leave, crept to the window to see if enough light had come for her to
have a sight of him as he went down the path. While she stood peering
out into the darkness, she heard a rap at the bedroom door.

"Who is it?" she cried.

"It's I--Danvers Carmichael!" came a voice, low but very distinct; at
sound of which she unbarred the door and slipped into the hallway.

He had made himself ready for his departure; his great coat, with the
cape drawn up, already on, his cap upon his head, and a lighted lantern
beside him, casting an eerie gleam along the black passage. He was
white to the lips, his eyes sunken and reckless, and at sight of him
Nancy cried in alarm:

"What is it, Danvers? What is it?"

"Oh, my girl!" said he. "It's just this! I can't go away and leave you
here! I can never go and leave you any more! The thought of it chokes
me! I love you, love you, love you!" he went on, "with all there is of
me. Last year I offered you love and honor. This year it's love and
dishonor, maybe, but love still, love that is greater than shame or
death. Will ye come away with me? There are other lands than ours and
other laws. Bigbie's lugger is lying at the foot of the hill with sail
up for Glasgow, and from there the world lies open for us.

"Oh, best beloved," he went on, "think of it! Does it mean anything to
you?--to be alone together, forever more? Do you know what it is to
waken with outstretched arms, longing for another, to----"

"I have suffered, Danvers," Nancy interrupted him. "I made mistakes,
bitter mistakes, my head being so engaged with other matters that I
lost the chart of woman's nature. And when I saw----" she paused at
this,