'It is lovely!' exclaimed the girl.
'I am glad you like it, for it is yours.'
'Mine!' said the girl, in a breathless voice, as she felt herself grow pale, and recognised the costliness of the jewel, but scarcely knowing what she did or what she said, while a curious mixture of dumb joy in her new lover and remorse for the former one seized her.
She heard hurried and passionate words poured into her ear; she felt the firm, warm clasp of Sir Redmond's hands on hers as he begged permission to clasp the necklet round her slender throat, while yieldingly she turned towards him, and deftly—he was not unused to episodes such as this—as he touched her soft, white skin, he clasped it on, his eyes glowing with fire and animation as he bent over her sweet little face.
The latter was pale rather than flushed, and her mobile lips were quivering as he pressed his to them, pursuing his advantage with all the courage, skill, and tact his past rascally experience had given him; while the force of his sudden love, if it scared, also delighted Ellinor, though the upbraiding and set visage of Robert Wodrow seemed to rise between them.
'One day I shall see the family diamonds of the house of Sleath sparkling on your brow and bosom, love,' said he, kissing her eyes, as gravely as if the said house of Sleath had come in with the European rabble of the Conqueror. 'And you promise to be mine, Ellinor?' he added, pressing her close to him.
'Yes,' she replied, in a scarcely audible whisper.
'There are some men who can love several women in succession—or imagine they do so. I am not one of these, believe me, darling! I have never—could never have done that. You, Ellinor, are the first love of my heart—my first and only one!'
How he talked, this man who knew well what passion was, but never loved, and the girl was too truthful generally herself to doubt; so her heart throbbed as his honeyed words fell on her willing ear.
'And so, love, we shall soon be made one now,' he whispered, with another caress.