"What the divil ails the boy?" asked Terrence.
"You have volunteered to aid the lieutenant go ducking--"
"Aisy me boy! While the lieutenant is after ducks, lose no time with the girl. Don't ye see I'm getting him out of yer way?"
Fernando had not thought of it in that light. On the next evening, the last they were to spend at Mariana, the lieutenant was rowed ashore attired for sporting, with top-boots and a double-barrelled fowling piece. Terrence, who claimed to be an experienced hunter, advised him to "kape their intintions sacrit," as too many might want to go, and that would spoil the sport. Ducks could best be hunted after night. He would show him how it was done.
It was almost dark, when they set off in a small rowboat for Duck Island, and twenty minutes later Fernando was on his way to his farewell visit to Morgianna.
The sun had set, but it was not yet dark when Fernando reached the broad piazza. He asked himself if she would be at home or away. He had said nothing of his coming. This visit was wholly on his own account. He had walked up and down the piazza two or three times, when through the open door he caught the flutter of a garment on the stairway. It was Morgianna's--to whom else could it belong? No dress but hers had such a flow as that. He gathered up courage and followed it into the hallway.
His darkening the door, into which the sombre shadows of twilight were already creeping, caused her to look around. "Oh that face! If it hadn't been for that," thought Fernando, "I could never have faced the Briton. She is twenty times handsomer than ever. She might marry a Lord!"
He didn't say this. He only thought it--perhaps looked it also. Morgianna was glad to see him and was so sorry her father was away from home. Fernando begged she would not worry herself on any account.
Morgianna hesitated to lead the way into the parlor, for there it was nearly dark. At the same time she hesitated to stand talking in the hall, which was tolerably light from the open door. They still stood in the hall in an embarrassing position, Fernando holding her hand in his (which he had no right to do, for Morgianna had only given it to him to shake), and yet both hesitated to go or stay anywhere.
"I have come," said Fernando, "to say good-bye--to say good-bye, for I don't know how many years; perhaps forever. I am going away."