“Ay, maybe,” answered Donal listlessly, as if he were thinking of something far away; “but it winna mak up for the tither; they’re no upo’ the same side o’ the watter, like. A puir lad like me daurna lift an ee till a gran’ leddy like you, mem. A’ the warl’ wad but scorn him, an’ lauch at the verra notion. My time’s near ower at the college, an’ I see naething for ’t but gang hame an’ fee (hire myself). I’ll be better workin’ wi’ my han’s nor wi’ my heid whan I hae nae houp left o’ ever seein’ yer face again. I winna lowse a day aboot it. Gien I lowse time I may lowse my rizon. Hae patience wi’ me ae meenute, mem; I’m jist driven to tell ye the trowth. It’s mony a lang sin I hae kent mysel’ wantin’ you. Ye’re the boady, an’ I’m the shaidow. I dinna mean nae hyperbolics—that’s the w’y the thing luiks to me i’ my ain thouchts. Eh, mem, but ye’re bonnie! Ye dinna ken yersel’ hoo bonnie ye are, nor what a subversion you mak i’ my hert an’ my heid. I cud jist cut my heid aff, an’ lay ’t aneth yer feet to haud them aff o’ the caul’ flure.”
Still she looked him in the eyes, like one bewildered, unable to withdraw her eyes from his. Her face too had grown white.
“Tell me to haud my tongue, mem, an’ I’ll haud it,” he said.
Her lips moved, but no sound came.
“I ken weel,” he went on, “ye can never luik upo’ me as onything mair nor a kin’ o’ a human bird, ’at ye wad hing in a cage, an’ gie seeds an’ bits o’ sugar till, an’ hearken till whan he sang. I’ll never trouble ye nae mair, an’ whether ye grant me my prayer or no, ye’ll never see me again. The only differ ’ill be ’at I’ll aither hing my heid or haud it up for the rest o’ my days. I wad fain ken ’at I wasna despised, an’ ’at maybe gien things had been different,—but na, I dinna mean that; I mean naething ’at wad fricht ye frae what I wad hae. It sudna mean a hair mair nor lies in itsel’.”
“What is it, Donal?” said Ginevra, half inaudibly, and with effort: she could scarcely speak for a fluttering in her throat.
“I cud beseech ye upo’ my k-nees,” he went on, as if she had not spoken, “to lat me kiss yer bonnie fut; but that ye micht grant for bare peety, an’ that wad dee me little guid; sae for ance an’ for a’, till maybe efter we’re a’ ayont the muckle sea, I beseech at the fawvour o’ yer sweet sowl, to lay upo’ me, as upo’ the lips o’ the sowl ’at sang ye the sangs ye likit sae weel to hear whan ye was but a leddy-lassie—ae solitary kiss. It shall be holy to me as the licht; an’ I sweir by the Trowth I’ll think o’ ’t but as ye think, an’ man nor wuman nor bairn, no even Gibbie himsel’, sall ken—”
The last word broke the spell upon Ginevra.
“But, Donal,” she said, as quietly as when years ago they talked by the Lorrie side, “would it be right?—a secret with you I could not tell to any one?—not even if afterwards—”
Donal’s face grew so ghastly with utter despair that absolute terror seized her; she turned from him and fled, calling “Gibbie! Gibbie!”