“He bought this farm and came to live here because it has always been my home—and I like to watch the road.”
He did not ask her why. The boys by the fire got up and shuffled away to their blankets. The old woman was long since gone. These two were left alone in the silence and the moonlight.
“Did you think that someone for you would come along the road some day?” he asked at last, coming very near her and looking at her mouth. After a moment she answered with a little sobbing sigh in her throat:
“But I must always remember the promise I made to my mother.”
He came close to her and gripped her hands; his eyes full of hunger, and longing, and caresses searched hers; his lips were almost on her lips.
“What was the promise?”
A wave of colour passed over her face and her eyes darkened with tears.
“I think you know,” she cried miserably.
“You must break it,” he said firmly. “You are mine—you must come with me.”
“No,” she said crying, “I cannot.”