"May I walk back to the town with you, Judith?"
"You forget," she said, coldly, "that if we were seen together the gossips might say I had come out hither to seek you, and alone."
But he paid no heed to this taunt.
"I care not," said he, with an affectation of indifference, "what the gossips in Stratford have to talk over. Stratford and I are soon to part."
"What say you?" said she, quickly—and they were walking on together now, the Don leisurely following at their heels.
"Nay, 'tis nothing," said he, carelessly; "there are wider lands beyond the seas, where a man can fight for his own and hold it."
"And you?" she said. "You have it in your mind to leave the country?"
"Marry, that have I!" said he, gayly. "My good friend Daniel Hutt hath gotten together a rare regiment, and I doubt not I shall be one of the captains of them ere many years be over."
Her eyes were downcast, and he could not see what impression this piece of news had made upon her—if, indeed, he cared to look. They walked for some time in silence.
"It is no light matter," said she at length, and in rather a low voice, "to leave one's native land."