"If you had been there——"
"Ah, mistress, if I might be always there to pluck the thorns away, so that for you life might have only roses."
"Nay, you might hurt your own hands, and I would not have that. But you shall come with me to Barham woods to gather the honeysuckle that grows there. It is sweet, without cruel prickings, yet sometimes it twines out of reach. You shall help me."
He did not answer, for very fear of saying too much, and thus frightening her with the passion which he needs must hold in check as a strong man reins back restive steed.
But perhaps she guessed what he might say, and, woman-like, tempted him on.
"Do you hear the ripple of the water among the sedges?" she whispered. "It sets me dreaming; and you—do you ever dream, Michael?"
The soft cadences of her words stole like soothing music to his throbbing heart.
"One dream I have," he answered huskily, "and only one. Yet when I dream it I pray never to awake."
"Tell it to me," she demanded, smiling as she turned her face half from him.
"I dare not."