"What is that?" cried Leam, a look of terror on her pale face as she rapidly crossed herself. "It is the Evil Sign."
"No," laughed Edgar, profiting by the moment to take her in his arms, judging that if she was frightened she would be willing to feel sheltered. "It is only one of the ladies passing to go down. Perhaps it is Adelaide Birkett: I think it was."
"And that would be an evil sign in itself," said Leam, still shuddering. And yet how safe she felt with his arms about her like this!
"Poor dear Addy! why should she be an ill omen to you, you dear little fluttering, frightened dove?"
"She hates me—always has, so long as I can remember her," answered Leam. "And you are her friend," she added.
"Her friend, yes, but not her lover, as I am yours—not her future husband," said Edgar.
Leam's hand touched his softly, with a touch that was as fleeting and subtle as her smile.
"A friend is not a wife, you know," he continued. "And you are to be my wife, my own dear and beloved little wife—always with me, never parted again."
"Never parted again! Ah, I shall never be unhappy then," she murmured.
A flash of summer lightning broke through the pale faint moonlight and lighted up the old gray towers with a lurid glow.