"Then why do you come to me this way, now?"
"Because I had to come. Because it is not always the likely thing which happens. Because I have thought that we were made for each other, you and I. Because I must know."
He waited for her answer, an answer which he feared she had already given him. He hungered for her so that he could only wonder how he could hold himself back from taking her up into his arms. But he mastered himself so that the girl could not guess how hard he strove for the mastery.
"Is love a little thing or a big thing?" she said suddenly.
"A big thing. I think it is the biggest thing in the world."
"And still, believing that, you think that I am a girl to let you treat me as you have treated me since we first saw each other, and then to come to you when you decide to crook your finger to me, giving you my love? Is that it? Is that why you are here to-night?"
"Is that my answer, Ygerne?" he said, his tone more stern than it had yet been.
"That is no answer at all, Mr. Drennen. It is a question."
His face grew a little white as he stared at her.
"I think, Ygerne, that I shall tell you good night now. And in the morning, before you are up, I'll be gone. All my life I hope I shall never see you again. And you can know that every day of it I'll be mad to see you."