"Some day, Rolf—but not yet."
"Thou hast scant love for me, or none at all," he flashed, pacing moodily up and down the hall.
"That is not true, Rolf, and thou know'st it; but I have love for the old home, too, and love for Ned. I'm young, dear, as years go, but there's none save me to mother them at Marsh. What would Ned do, what would the lads do, if I left them to fight it out alone? And Ned"—she faltered a little—"Ned is very new to repentance, and who knows how the wind would shift if he had none to care for him?"
"He would follow thee to Cranshaw—where I would have him be."
"Nay, but he would not! If he stood alone, without a sword to his hand, he would wait here for what might come."
Still he pleaded with her, and still she held to her resolve. And at last he gave up the struggle.
"None knows what the end will be, but we must win through it somehow," he said.
And then, her object gained, she crept close to his embrace, and, "Rolf," she whispered, "how can Ned fight the Lean Man and all his folk? Is it true that he is the first victim chosen?"
"I fear it, lass."
"But, dear, I cannot bear to lose him! I cannot."