But he laid hold of her arm.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Only think of my brothers. Your very life would be in danger."
"If all six of them were ranged across the other end of this bridge, and you had to walk the rest of the road alone, I would go through them," he said.
She saw the high lift of his neck and she smiled proudly. Then they walked on some distance. He was gazing at her in silence. There was a conscious delight of her beauty in the swing of her step and the untamed glance of her eyes.
"Since the country is so fine I suppose you'll stay a long while there?" she said in her sweetest tone.
"No longer than I must," he answered.
"Why not?"
"I don't know."
"But why not?" she said again, looking at him sideways with a gleam of a smile.