“I love you,” he cried passionately, “and I want you to promise—”
“Hush!” said she, putting her hand over his lips; but he only kissed the hand, and went on with what he was about to say when she had interrupted him.
“I want you, Kate, my darling, to promise to be my wife!” he said. “I love you more than I can tell—I have loved you since ever I first saw you—and I shall love you till my dying day; will you promise, Kate, to be my wife? but, if you can’t yet do all I ask, will you try to love me a little? Oh, Kate, I do love you so dearly!”
Her head bent lower and lower, so that he had to bend his too in order to see what her face said, for she would not speak; and, as the firelight danced upon the dear face and lightened up the blue eyes which so shyly looked into his, Frank seemed to read an answer there that was favourable to his hopes, for he passed his arm round her waist without another moment’s hesitation, and ventured to imprint a kiss upon her lips.
“My darling, my darling!” he murmured in an ecstasy of joy; but just then Mr Meldrum raised his head from between his clasped hands and looked at the pair.
He evidently realised what had happened, and, as evidently, he was not taken by surprise at the event. Nor, indeed, would anyone else have been in the whole community; for Frank’s love to Kate had been as palpable to all as the famed ostrich of the story was when it hid its head in the sand and imagined itself invisible to its pursuers!
“My children,” said he kindly, coming over to them and holding out his hand to Frank, who at once grasped it, “I expected this; and I cannot say I am displeased. I know you have an affection for each other—”
We love each other,” interrupted Frank eagerly.
“Well, you love each other, if you prefer it being so put; but you are both very young, and you must wait for some time even after we are released, as I hope we shall be by and by, from this desert isle. I have seen enough of you, Frank Harness, to feel confident that I can trust my daughter’s happiness to your keeping; but you must first secure a name and a competence for yourself before you can dream of asking her to be your wife. You see, my boys I may perhaps have overheard more of your whispered conversation than you thought! I can give Kate nothing, for I am a ruined man, and was going out to New Zealand to try and retrieve my lost fortune when this untoward disaster happened!”
“Mr Meldrum,” said Frank respectfully, standing up by the side of the other and facing him like a man, “I want nothing but Kate. She is the greatest fortune I could ever crave! My father is a rich man, one of the largest ship-owners in Liverpool, and my taking to the sea has been strongly against his wish, although he consented to it when he saw how bent I was upon being a sailor. He could make me independent to-morrow if I asked him.”