“And I can do nothing?” he said pitifully. “Nothing!” said she; “you can do everything.” “Show me how, then,” he said eagerly. She had been gazing away from him with her eyes on Maam, that looked so sombre a home, and was certainly now so cruel a home, and she turned then, almost weeping, her breath rising and falling, audible to his ear, the sweetest of sounds.
“Will you take me away from here?” she asked in entreaty. “I must go away from here.”
“I will take you anywhere you wish,” said he.
He held out his hands in a gesture of sudden offering, and she felt a happiness as one who comes upon a familiar and kind face all unexpectedly in a strange country. Her face betrayed her gladness.
“I will take you, and who would be better pleased?” said Gilian.
She explained her intention briefly. She must leave Maam at the latest to-morrow night without being observed, and he must show her the way to Elasaid’s shealing.
“Ah! give me the right,” he said, “and I will take you to the world’s end.” He put out his hands and nigh encircled her, but shyness sent him back to a calmer distance.
“John Hielan’man!” she repeated to herself, annoyed at this tardiness, but she outwardly showed no knowledge of it.
They planned what only half in fun she called their elopement. He was to come across to Maam in the early morning.