"It is true, Helen," said Bryde; "I am loving her for that, God bless her."
"Ah, but will not Helen be blessed a little too," said the lass, and for the first time there were tears in her eyes, and one great drop fell like a white pearl in the moonlight. "Dear, this is not you, so calm—that is like Hugh,—you are cold. Why do I cry and you not comfort me?" She pouted her lips. "One kiss, and I will remember always."
"One kiss," said Bryde, laughing, "and I will never be forgetting."
And at that they laughed.
"Ah, now it is Bryde—come, we will go to the horses," and she sprang to her feet.
With the serving-man at his mother's door she had a word—
"You will come home in the morning—to-night you will stay with your mother."
On the road, with Bryde mounted alongside of her on the servant's beast, she set spurs to her horse Hillman, and he reared, and as he pawed in the air she laughed, and she pointed with her whip outstretched—
"Take me over that hill, and we will not come back ever, ever again."
And after the first mad gallop—
"I will tell you—you love Margaret, why—because Margaret is here always since you were ver' little boy, always Margaret. . . ."