"Yes."
When he had drunk the cider and ridden away, Farmer Noel turned to his niece.
"A fine young man that, Leone; but what did he say to you?"
"Nothing particular; something about the mill-stream," replied the proud lips, that disdained a lie.
"Because," said Robert Noel, slowly, "you have a beautiful face of your own, my lady la.s.s, and a young man like that would be sure to admire it."
"What matter if he did, uncle?" she asked.
"Harm would come of it," replied the farmer; "what a man admires he often loves; and no good would come of such a love as that."
"Why not?" she asked again, with flushed face and flashing eyes. "Why not?"
"We reckon in these parts," said the farmer, slowly, "that there is too great a difference between the aristocracy and the working-people. To put it in plain words, my lady la.s.s, when a great lord or a rich man admires a poor la.s.s, as a rule it ends in her disgrace."
"Not always," she answered, proudly.
"No, perhaps not always; but mostly, mostly," repeated Robert Noel. "You have a beautiful face, and, if you are wise, you will keep out of that young gentleman"s way. I should not like to offend you, Leone; you will excuse me for speaking plainly."
"It does not offend me," she said, simply; "although I do not think that you are right. Why should not a lord, great and rich as this one, marry a girl who has no drawback but poverty? I do not see such a great difference."
"I cannot tell you, my lady la.s.s, either the why or the wherefore," he replied. "I know that rich men do not marry poor and obscure girls; and if they do, there is sure to be something wrong with the marriage. We will not talk about it, only if he seems to admire you at all, do you keep out of that young man"s way."
She made him no answer; his care for her touched her, but then there was no need. Lord Chandos was unlike other men; besides which he loved her so well he could not live without her.
So, when the sun was setting in the western sky, she went down to the mill-stream, where her lover awaited her.
The crimson clouds were reflected in the rippling water, the birds were singing in the trees, the flowers were all falling asleep; the fair, fragrant world was getting ready for its time of rest.
"Leone," he cried, seizing her hands and drawing her toward him, "my darling, I thought to-day would never come. How many hours did yesterday hold?"
"Twenty-four," she replied.
"Only twenty-four? Why, it seemed to me it was a day as long as a year, and I asked myself one question, sweet."
"What was it, Lance?"
"This: that if one day seemed so terribly long, what would become of me if I had to pa.s.s a week without you?"
"What would become of you?" she said, laughingly.
"I should die of my own impatience," he said, his handsome young face flushing. "Fate may try me as it will," he added, "but it must never separate me from you. It is because I have found this out that I have asked you to meet me here to-night. I cannot live without you, Leone; you understand that the hours are long and dark; life seems all ended, I cannot feel interest or energy; I am longing for you all the time, just as thirsty flowers are longing for dew. Leone, I should long until the fever of my own longing killed me--for you."
He drew the beautiful face to his own, and kissed it with a pa.s.sion words could never tell.
"Why should I not be happy in my own way?" he said. "If I want the one only thing on earth that could bring me my happiness, why should I not have it? Of what use is money, wealth, position, rank, anything else on earth to me, unless I have you. I would rather lose all I have in the world than lose you."
"It is sweet to be loved so well," she said, with a sigh.
"I have had letters from home to-day," he said, "and I--I am half afraid to tell you lest you should say no. I am to leave Rashleigh in one month from now, and to go to my father"s house--Cawdor, it is called. Leone, I cannot go alone."
She looked at him with wondering eyes; the ardent young lover who believed his love to be so great and so generous, yet who, in reality, loved himself best, even in his love.
"Darling, I want you to consent to be my wife before I leave Rashleigh,"
he continued. "I know it will be the best and easiest plan if I can but win your consent."
Her loving heart seemed almost to stand still; the crimson clouds and the rippling waters seemed to meet; even in her dreams she had never imagined herself his wife.
Lord Chandos continued:
"I know my parents well; my father is inflexible on some points, but easily influenced; my mother is, I believe, the proudest woman in the wide world. I know that she expects something wonderful from me in the way of marriage; I hardly think that there is a peeress in England that my mother would deem too good for me, and it would wound her to the heart should I marry a woman beneath me in rank. Indeed I know she would never forgive me."
She uttered a little, low cry.
"Then why have you loved me?" she asked.
Her lover laughed.
"How could I help it, my darling? In you I have found the other half of my own soul. I could no more help loving you than a bird can help singing. But listen, Leone; it is as I say, if I were to go home and pray all day to them it would be useless. I have another plan. Marry me, and I can take you to them and say, "This is my wife." They could not help receiving you then, because the marriage could not be undone, and my mother, with her worldly tact, would made the best of it then. If I ask permission to marry you, they will never grant it; if I marry you, they will be compelled to forgive it."
She drew herself half proudly from him.
"I do not wish any one to be compelled to receive me, nor do I wish to be the cause of unpleasantness," she said.
"My darling, all lovers have something to suffer. The course of true love cannot run smooth. Surely you would not desert me, or forsake me, or refuse to love me because I cannot change the opinion of my conservative parents. I know no lady, no peeress in England, who is half so beautiful, so clever as you--not one. I shall be more proud to take you home as Lady Chandos than if you were a queen"s daughter. You believe me?"
"Yes, I believe _you_," she replied.
"Never mind any one else, Leone. My father admires beautiful women; he will be sure to love you; my mother will be very disagreeable at first, but in a short time she will learn to love you, and then all will be well."
The little white hand clung to him.
"You are quite sure, Lance?" she said, with a sob--"quite sure?"
"Yes, sweet, I am more than sure. You will be Lady Chandos, of Cawdor, and that is one of the oldest and grandest t.i.tles in England."
"But will your mother forgive you and love you again?" she asked, anxiously.
"Yes, believe me. And now, Leone, let me tell you my plans. They are all rather underhand, but we cannot help that; everything is fair in love and war. About twenty miles from here there is a sleepy little village called Oheton. I was there yesterday, and it was there that this plan came to me. Oh, my darling, turn your sweet face to me and let me be quite sure that you are listening."
"I am listening, Lance," she said.
"No, not with all your heart. See how well I understand you. Your eyes linger on the water, and the falling of it makes music, and the rhyme of the music is:
""These vows were all forgotten, The ring asunder broken."