Then he went back quietly into the
garden, and turning to Schmidt, said, "Will you oblige me by leaving me
with Mistress White? I will explain to thee by and by."
Schmidt looked up surprised, but seeing how pale and stern he looked,
rose and went into the house. The woman looked up expectant.
"Priscilla, the time has come when thee must choose between me and him."
"He has come back? I knew always he would come."
"Yes, he has come back: I saw him to-day," said Wholesome, "and the John
Oldmixon of to-day is more than ever cruel and brutal. Will thee trust
me to make thee believe that?"
"I believe thee," she returned; "but because he is this and worse, shall
I forget my word or turn aside from that which, if bitter for me, may
save his soul alive?"
"And yet you love me?"
"Have I said so?" she murmured with a half smile.
The young man came closer and seized both hands in his: "Will it not be
a greater sin, loving me, to marry him?"
"But he may never ask me, and then I shall wait, for I had better die
fit in soul to be yours than come to you unworthy of a good man's love."
He dropped her hands and moved slowly away, she watching him with full
eyes. Then he turned and said, "But should he fall--fall as he must--and
come to be what his life will surely make him, a felon whom no woman
could marry--"
"Thee makes duty hard for me, Richard," she answered. "Do not make me
think thee cruel. When in God's good time he shall send me back the
words of promise I wrote when he went away a disgraced man, to whom,
nevertheless I owed my life, then--Oh, Richard, I love thee! Do not hurt
me.
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