“Money?” she said. “No, no; I know I mustn’t do that. You’d be too proud to take it, and from me. No, I daren’t offer you money. But I don’t think they’ll refuse my wish.” Her eyes flashed. “How could they? They have got all they want. For very shame they dare not refuse me this one little thing. It’s all I shall have of good out of the bargain; it’s all I shall ask. But”—the old Esmeralda of Three Star stood before him, flashed from her eyes, spoke in her voice—“but this I will have!”
Norman went pale in his excitement.
“What can I say to you, Esmeralda?” he said, huskily.
“Say nothing,” she said. “I owe you something for caring for me once, Norman—”
“I care a great deal for you now!” he broke in, in a passion of gratitude.
“In another way. Yes, I know—in another way,” she said.
“By Heaven! there is no one like you,” he said—“no one in the whole world so good, so generous!”
“Not even Lilias?” she said, with a little smile. “But I’m content to come second to her. Yes”—he had bent his head so that his lips were near her face—“you may kiss me, if you like. I will pass it on to Lilias when we say good-night.”
He kissed her on the forehead with a brother’s love, a strong man’s reverence. She sighed. A faint sound came from a bank of ferns behind them. She turned her head listlessly.
“Some one is coming,” she said. “Stay here, and I will go and find Lilias and manage to get her to come to you.”