"My dear Lord!" said she, in a faint voice, "so thou art come to me again!"
"I have come, Anna, but to bid thee farewell." Her large eyes dilated with sudden alarm and grief.
"I told thee, Anna, that in Orkney we might have to separate for a time, ere I could convey thee to my household and my home. The wind is blowing right across the stormy Frith toward the mainland of Scotland, and though love cries ho! my skipper is urgent, and still more so is stern necessity. Farewell for a time—for a brief time, sweet Anna, I must leave thee," continued the Earl kissing her repeatedly to pacify her.
Her beauty was very alluring, and until that moment he knew not how deep was his passion for her.
"In that busy world of turmoil and intrigue on which thou art about to re-enter—I will be forgotten. Thou mayest not return to me, and I—I will"——
"What?"
"Die!"
"Speak not, think not thus, dearest Anna!" replied Bothwell, who felt his resolution wavering, though the thoughts of ambition and the taunts of Ormiston urged him on the path he had commenced. "We must separate—but we must meet again."
"Well, be it so!" she said, bending her eyes that were blinded with tears upon him; "but O, Bothwell! thou art dearer to me than life, and knowest all that I have sacrificed for thee,—home—friends—myself—every thing"——
"True—true, Anna;" he was touched to the soul by her manner and accent.