"Yes."
"Very well. If you will not promise me faithfully to escape to the mainland to-night, I swear to you by all that you and I believe in, and most of all by our love for each other, that I will do what I said, and run away from my father's house, to-night. But you will not let me go alone, will you?"
"No!"
"There! You see! Of course you would not let me go alone, me, a poor weak girl, who have never taken a step alone in my life, until to-night! And they say that the world is so wicked! What would become of me if you let me go away alone?"
"If I thought you meant to do that!"
He laughed again, and drew her to him, and would have kissed her; but she held him back and looked at him earnestly.
"I mean it," she said. "That is what I will do. I swear that I will. Yes—now you may."
And she kissed him of her own accord, but quickly withdrew herself from his arms again.
"You have your choice," she said, "and you must choose quickly, for I have been here too long—it must be nearly half an hour since I left my room, and Nella is waiting for me, thinking that I am with my brother and his wife. Promise me to do what I ask, and I will go back, and when my father comes home I will tell him the whole troth. That is the wisest thing, after all. Or, I will go with you, if you will take me as I am."
"No," he answered, with an effort. "I will not take you with me."