"I wish to heaven that
you had been first!" she sobbed.
McMurdo was down on his knees before her in an instant. "For
God's sake, Ettie, let it stand at that!" he cried. "Will you
ruin your life and my own for the sake of this promise? Follow
your heart, acushla! 'Tis a safer guide than any promise before
you knew what it was that you were saying."
He had seized Ettie's white hand between his own strong brown
ones.
"Say that you will be mine, and we will face it out together!"
"Not here?"
"Yes, here."
"No, no, Jack!" His arms were round her now. "It could not be
here. Could you take me away?"
A struggle passed for a moment over McMurdo's face; but it ended
by setting like granite. "No, here," he said. "I'll hold you
against the world, Ettie, right here where we are!"
"Why should we not leave together?"
"No, Ettie, I can't leave here."
"But why?"
"I'd never hold my head up again if I felt that I had been driven
out. Besides, what is there to be afraid of? Are we not free
folks in a free country? If you love me, and I you, who will
dare to come between?"
"You don't know, Jack.
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