"It will! and that drives me mad also. What can I choose!"
"Follow where God leads. It is she, after all, who must reclaim him.
Leave her in God's hands, and go with her to London."
"But my brother?"
"Mellot or I will see him. Let it be me. Mellot shall go with you to
London."
"Oh that you were going!"
"Oh that I were! I will follow, though. Do you think that I can be long away from you?… But I must tell your brother. I had a very different matter on which to speak to him this morning," said he, with a sad smile: "but better as it is. He shall find me, I hope, reasonable and trustworthy in this matter; perhaps enough so to have my Valencia committed to me. Precious jewel! I must learn to be a man now, at least; now that I have you to care for."
"And yet you go and leave me?"
"Valencia! Because God has given us to each other, shall our thank-offering be to shrink cowardly from His work?"
He spoke more sternly than he intended, to awe into obedience rather himself than her; for he felt, poor fellow, his courage failing fast, while he held that treasure in his arms.
She shuddered in silence.