The Parson reined in his horse, and unconsciously she followed his example.
"The man John Garnet," said he, in a deep, hoarse voice, "took my brother's life—stabbed him in the dark, Mistress Nelly, without friends or witnesses, and that man I have sworn never to leave till with my own eyes I see him laid in a murderer's grave. To-day an accursed chance delivered him out of my hand, when my knife was almost at his throat. The next time he shall not escape so well. Dick Boss and I, with a few stout lads to help, mean having him safe in Taunton Gaol before the week is out. And this is the gallant, pretty Mistress Nelly, I was fool enough to think had made such way in your good graces as to supplant your old friend Abner Gale!"
How she hated him, sitting there, square and resolute, on his horse! The unwelcome suitor, the implacable enemy, the avenger thirsting for the blood of one whom she only loved more madly, more devotedly, because of his danger and his need! Her blue eyes burned with unaccustomed fire, her cheek glowed with a deep, angry crimson, and Parson Gale, marking her emotion, believed it was called forth by affection for himself!
He looked at her in speechless admiration for the space of a full minute, then he burst out with a sob:
"Have pity on me, Mistress Nelly, have pity on me! I love you so! I love you so!"
She had reviewed the whole position, taken in every detail of the situation during this eventful pause, and made her crowning manœuvre with the skill of that subtlest of all tacticians—a woman at her wit's end!
"It's very easy to talk!" she observed, demurely, "but I was always one that liked to see a man prove his words. If you—you really cared for me, you would do what I ask, wouldn't you, Master Gale? and never want to know the reason why!"
"Ask it!" exclaimed the Parson, "and if I say no, beautiful Mistress Nelly, then say no to me, when I plead for something dearer and more precious than the light of day and the very air I breathe!"
She knew too well the compact implied by so enthusiastic an assent, but hesitated not for a single instant.