"Were he a cowherd, he would have a cowherd's common soul, maiden!"
"Being common he then could not be Lester. But being Lester, though a swineherd, that inherent nobleness, that is the birthright of his nature, would shine out through his mean garb and calling, and make him still, to my eyes, the Lester I love."
"Were he a slave—a serf—ay, chained to a galley, wouldst thou love him still?"
"If misfortune, and not crime, brought him to this degradation—then should I not love him less, but love him more!"
"If 'twere crime?"
"Couple it not with his name, woman," she said, with flashing eyes. "But why this dark and subtle questioning? Speak, I command thee!"
"Thou hast no power to command me—I no will to obey. I will probe her yet deeper!" she muttered. "If, maiden, there were a stain upon his birth—"
"Well—" she quickly interrupted, with painful eagerness visible in every lineament of her beautiful countenance: for her feelings were highly wrought up, and, excited to expectation of something evil by the manner of her interrogator, she was all nerves and on the rack of torturing suspense. "Well—speak, prithee, woman! Why do you pause?"
"If 'twere proven he were a—a—"
"Say—"