"Ivor Parry! it is thee, indeed? Ach y fi! I was not expecting to see thee; but I'm not surprised, though, 'tis such a beautiful night."
Before she had finished speaking, Ivor had regained his composure.
"Yes, 'tis a fine night," he said; "but 'twas not that made me come out. I have been at thy mother's on my way home from Aberython, and I—I——" and he lifted his hat and pushed his fingers through his hair, which was damp and clammy.
"Yes, indeed," said Gwladys, beginning to lose her own calmness. "She gave me thy message. I was not long after thee, for I heard thee singing. I thank thee for thy good wishes."
"I thought, perhaps, it was not true," said Ivor, and his voice shook a little.
Gwladys was silent for a moment, during which a flood of new emotions surged through her whole being, so that her heart beat fast, her limbs trembled, and the whole world seemed to take a new shape before her. Ivor's altered manner, his hoarse voice, the nervous trembling of the hands which he held out towards her, all told the tale which he had withheld so long, and, with a sudden flash of intuition which comes in a great crisis, his love and misery were all revealed to her; and alas! her love for him! She could not do otherwise than place her hands in those which were stretched out so eagerly towards her; but while she did so, her head drooped, and her tears fell like rain.
"'Tis true," she said at last, "'tis true, Ivor."
"Didst not know, Gwladys, that I loved thee, that every hair of thine head was precious to me?"
Many years passed over Ivor's head after that night, but he never forgot the cry with which she heard his words.
"Oh, Ivor! what is this thou art telling me?" and sitting down on the upturned creel which had slipped from her shoulders, she swayed backwards and forwards, endeavouring to smother the sobs which shook her frame. In truth, it was only the bursting of the floodgates, which she had kept closed by a strong effort of will ever since she had made her final promise to Hugh Morgan. The discovery of Ivor's love had been too much for her overstrained nerves, and now, with the abandon of a child, she sat on her creel and cried bitterly. Ivor seated himself on a rock beside her, his worst fears confirmed, and at last, when the sobbing girl had a little regained composure, took her hand and said: