"Then you would not have me less fond, would you, dear? If I do not love you as you love me, then am I but a mere animal, unable to recognise the higher things of life. I did not recognise them until you looked at me,--until the veil fell from my eyes, and the warmth of your affection kindled a flame in my heart. But my soul has spoken to your soul, and if we had met and wooed for years, we could get no nearer the one to the other, than we are. Ours will be a marriage made in heaven,--the ideal heavenly marriage." "Marriage!" she murmured, confused, "marriage." "Yes, although I admit that I am a poor husband for you. I have no money,--I am under the ban of the law,--my life is full of misfortunes. Ah, dearest heart, think how deep must be my love, when I asked you to become my wife at this juncture." "Bless me," cried Mrs. Kind, not following this reasoning, "I should think it was the other way about. A chap as loves a maid shouldn't drag her down to poverty." "You are wrong,--you are wrong," said Elspeth, passing swiftly to the side of the bunk, "and Mr. Herries is right. Were we both rich, and careless of the deeper things of life, which poverty alone can teach, then we might marry without knowing each other's souls. But now, when we are in the depths, when Fate is doing her worst, when there is no earthly gain on either side, now is the time that we know our love is heavenly and lasting." "Then you love me indeed," said Herries coming up to her. She turned and put out her hands. All that was womanly in her, came to the surface in this hour, when both were at the nadir of their fortunes. "I love you," said Elspeth simply, and there was no need to say more, as her eyes spoke far more eloquently than did her tongue. "I will be your wife, when and where you will." Herries was not an emotional man, but the tears came into his eyes as he bent forward to kiss those virgin lips. This sudden love, so new, so wonderful, so heart-inspiring, was so simple in its genesis that for the moment he could scarcely think that it was actual fact. "I ask nothing further of Fortune now," said the young man, and his strong voice quavered. "I have gained the love of an angel." "Ah!" said Mrs. Kind shifting uneasily on her pillow, "that's what all men say before marriage, but afterwards----" "There will be no afterwards," cried Herries impetuously. "The beautiful present will be always with us. "Beautiful present, doctor, and you being hunted down." "I am not caught yet," said Herries gaily. "For the rest, I can afford to wait,--with Elspeth." "But if you are captured?" she asked, her head resting unresistingly on his breast. "I shall not be captured," said Herries forcibly, "though it may be that I shall give myself up." "Mr. Herries----" "Angus!" "Well then, Angus, you would not give yourself up?" The young man sat down again on the broken chair, and drew the slight form of his beloved to his knee.