Part 60 (2/2)
”Gerty,” said he, ”I warn you! Do not mention that man to me--now or at any time; or it will be bad for him and for you!”
She twisted her hand from his grasp.
”How dare you come near me!” she cried.
”I beg your pardon,” said he, with an instant return to his former grave gentleness of manner. ”I wish to let you know how you are situated, if you will let me, Gerty. I don't wish to justify what I have done, for you would not hear me--just yet. But this I must tell you, that I don't wish to force myself on your society. You will do as you please. There is your cabin; you have occupied it before. If you would like to have this saloon, you can have that too; I mean I shall not come into it unless it pleases you. And there is a bell in your cabin; and if you ring it, Christina will answer.”
She heard him out patiently. Her reply was a scornful, perhaps nervous, laugh.
”Why, this is mere folly,” she exclaimed. ”It is simple madness. I begin to believe that you are really ill, after all; and it is your mind that is affected. Surely you don't know what you are doing?”
”You are angry, Gerty,” said he,
But the first blaze of her wrath and indignation had pa.s.sed away; and now fear was coming uppermost.
”Surely, Keith, you cannot be dreaming of such a mad thing! Oh, it is impossible! It is a joke: it was to frighten me; it was to punish me, perhaps. Well, I have deserved it; but now--now you have succeeded; and you will let me go ash.o.r.e, farther down the river.”
Her tone was altered. She had been watching his face.
”Oh no, Gerty; oh no,” he said. ”Do you not understand yet? You were everything in the world to me; you were life itself. Without you I had nothing, and the world might just as well come to an end for me. And when I thought you were going away from me, what could I do? I could not reach you by letters, and letters; and how could I know what the people around you were saying to you? Ah, you do not know what I have suffered, Gerty! And always I was saying to myself that if I could get you away from these people, you would remember the time that you gave me the red rose, and all those beautiful days would come back again, and I would lake your hand again, and I would forget altogether about the terrible nights when I saw you beside me and heard you laugh just as in the old times. And I knew there was only the one way left. How could I but try that? I knew you would be angry, but I hoped your anger would go away.
And now you are angry, Gerty, and my speaking to you is not of much use--as yet; but I can wait until I see yourself again, as you used to be, in the garden--don't you remember, Gerty?”
Her face was proud, cold, implacable.
”Do I understand you aright: that you have shut me up in this yacht and mean to take me away?”
”Gerty, I have saved you from yourself!”
”Will you be so kind as to tell me where we are going?”
”Why not away back to the Highlands, Gerty?” said he, eagerly. ”And then some day when your heart relents, and you forgive me, you will put your hand in mine, and we will walk up the road to Castle Dare. Do you not think they will be glad to see us that day, Gerty?”
She maintained her proud att.i.tude, but she was trembling from head to foot.
”Do you mean to say that until I consent to be your wife I am not to be allowed to leave this yacht?”
”You will consent Gerty!”
”Not if I were to be shut up here for a thousand years!” she exclaimed, with another burst of pa.s.sion. ”Oh, you will pay for this dearly! I thought it was madness--mere folly; but if it is true, you will rue this day! Do you think we are savages here? Do you think we have no law?”
”I do not care for any law,” said he, simply. ”I can only think of the one thing in the world. If I have not your love, Gerty, what else can I care about?”
”My love!” she exclaimed. ”And this is the way to earn it, truly! My love! If you were to keep me shut up for a thousand years, you would never have it! You can have my hatred, if you like, and plenty of it, too!”
”You are angry, Gerty!” was all he said.
<script>