“Margaret!” A low eager voice that seemed the very essence of subdued delight, trembling with satisfaction and happiness, and he suddenly made a spring to her side from under the trees, through which he had been threading his way to the place of meeting. He threw himself on his knees by her, and seized and kissed her hands a hundred times. “You here before me! waiting for _me_! To think I should have lost a moment of the little time I may have you! I shall never forgive myself; but I thought it was too early for you, even now.” “Oh, I have not been waiting long,” she said. “It was because we dined so early; and then they were all--tired.” “Except my Margaret. God bless my Margaret, that came out and took the trouble to wait for me! How often I have sat here and watched for the sweep of your dress at the corner of the house, for the least sign of you! And to think that _you_ should have been first to-night, and waiting--” “Why should not I wait,” she said, “as well as you? And to-morrow I am going away.” “To-morrow!” he cried, in a voice of despair. “How am I to endure it? how am I to go on without you? I am afraid to think of it, my darling. Margaret! Margaret! what are you going to say to me to give me strength to get through to-morrow, and all the days after it, till we meet again?” Now it has come! said Margaret to herself; and she felt with astonishment that the emergency seemed to give her possession of her faculties. “I do not know,” she said, steadily, “what you want me to do or say. I shall be very sorry to go away and to--part from you. But what can I do? My sisters have the right to do what they think proper with me; and I think I ought, too, to go and see my own house. I would like to take Bell or somebody, but they will not let me. And now that Ludovic is here and his family, it is natural that I should go away.” “Yes; but first say something to comfort me, Margaret. I did not suppose you could stay here forever: but tell me you love me, and will be faithful to me. Tell me when I may come after you?” “Come after me?” she exclaimed, with a certain dismay. “Did you not think I would come after you? Did you think I could stay in one country while you were in another-- I, who have had the happiness of seeing you every day? But it is better this should end, though it is like to break my heart, for we should have lost time, and been content just with seeing each other; and now, Margaret, my darling, we must settle something. Tell me what I may do? To wait till you are of age is a lifetime. If I come to England after you in about three months, when you are in your own house, will you receive me and tell your sisters what I am to you? Margaret! you are not frightened, darling? You did not think I would let my love go away and carry my heart with her without settling something? You could not have been so cruel!”