“Then do not doubt me; I will take you to my own home; you shall be mine and I shall be yours; there is nothing that love can do for you that shall not be done. Can you not be happy in my love?”
She was silent a few moments, as if too much affected to speak. Hammond truly and deeply loved this girl, and had all the eagerness of a young lover to carry away the prize with him. He had spent several months here, held solely by the magnetism of her presence.
We have described in the first chapter his singular meeting with her, and the deep impression her appearance and her act of kindness had made upon him. True to his declaration, he had left his companions, and had devoted all to searching her out. He knew that she dwelt somewhere in this neighborhood, but it was a long time before he could discover her.
Seemingly by pure accident he had encountered her a few days before. As may be supposed, she was greatly surprised to see him, and their first interview was quite embarrassing upon both sides.
But their acquaintance rapidly progressed, until we have shown how he learned much regarding her early history, and finally declared his love to her.
It was plain, and Hammond saw that he had awakened a tender interest in her, but she had not yet reached the point of giving her love unreservedly to him. She was strongly attached to Kipwan and her Meagan friends, and it was a painful struggle for her to decide to leave them forever.
“You have grown up among the people who have treated you kindly, and to whom you feel devotedly attached. It is natural that you should; I love them because of their kindness to you; but you are fitted for another life than this; go with me, and you shall never regret the step.”
Hitherto the two had been standing, but now Hammond conducted her some distance from the path to a flat rock, where the two seated themselves.
It was a bright sunshiny day; they were enveloped in shrubbery and undergrowth, which were so dense about them, that they were invisible to any one a short distance away.
They sat in silence for a few moments; their hearts too full for speech. She was thinking how much she loved the noble figure beside her: how happy she could be to yield her heart to him, and to go where she could be wholly his. But—