The strong man’s voice trembled as he spoke. A wave of passion and longing swept over him. He drew her to him and held her close, pillowing her head upon his breast, and whispering to her that she was his; it was not in her power to make the choice since love gave him the right to her. “Thou dost affright me. There is something in thy love that terrifies me,” she said, trying to make him free her. “I shall not let you go until you have promised that you will marry me,” he said. “I cannot promise that, Stephen,” she said, so faintly that he scarcely heard her. “Thou knowest I cannot leave my father, and surely thou wouldst not be content to stay here in Zanah.” “I could live here or anywhere else with you. Promise.” “Nay, nay, I cannot,” she repeated. “Will you pledge yourself to marry me when your conscience tells you that you are free?” “It is in my heart to promise that to thee, Stephen, but during my vigil I have come to know that if thou shouldst live away from me out in the world thou mightst no longer love me. Nay, I will not bind thee. The only pledge I give thee is the pledge that I will love thee all my life.” A furious knocking on the door made them remember the imprisoned watchers. “If you refuse to go with me now what do you wish to do?” Stephen asked, coming back to the subject of his original errand. “I want to wait until the _Untersuchung_, and I want thee to be patient until thou hearest what the elders say. I shall pray that I may be given to thee.” “There is no danger of your repenting of love, is there, Walda?” She smiled confidently and answered: “Thy love will dwell in my heart forever.” He kissed her farewell, holding both her hands in his. “I wish I could spare you the ordeal of the _Untersuchung_,” he exclaimed. “Why need we care for all the world?” “Hush!” she said. “We care not for Zanah or the whole world, but if we would keep our love holy, we must be true, Stephen, to all our duties.” After he had kissed her for the last time, she stood before the elders’ platform and looked up at the chair of the prophetess. Everett unlocked the door. “I appreciate the opportunity you have given me of speaking to Walda Kellar,” he said, with a suavity and courtesy to which the women of the colony were so unaccustomed they did not know what it meant. They stood scowling at him until Mother Kaufmann replied: “Thou wilt be ordered out of the colony for this day’s work.” “If you are wise—and I am sure you are, or you would not have been chosen to attend the prophetess of Zanah—you will not make any complaints.” He bowed deferentially to all of them, and passing Walda, before whom he stopped to whisper “Farewell, until the _Untersuchung_,” he went out of the meeting-house. “It must have been a message of much import that brought the stranger here,” sneered Mother Kaufmann, as she seated herself on the nearest chair. “He hath small respect for the laws of Zanah,” declared a second watcher.