But just at this moment there came a blast which shook even Hammond’s strong frame, and with a cry of fear he snatched Mary in his arms and carried her away from the edge of the hill.  He folded her in his arms and held her there, thirty yards away from the precipice, safely sheltered against his breast, while the wind raved round them, blowing her hair from the broad, white brow, and showing him that noble forehead in all its power and beauty; while the darkness deepened round them so that they could see hardly anything except each other’s eyes.

‘My love, my own dear love,’ he murmured fondly; ’I will trust you with my life.  Will you accept the trust?  I am hardly worthy; for less than a year ago I offered myself to your sister, and I thought she was the only woman in this wide world who could make me happy.  And when she refused me I was in despair, Mary; and I left Fellside in the full belief that I had done with life and happiness.  And then I came back, only to oblige Maulevrier, and determined to be utterly miserable at Fellside.  I was miserable for the first two hours.  Memories of dead and gone joys and disappointed hopes were very bitter.  And I tried honestly to keep up my feeling of wretchedness for the first few days.  But it was no use, Molly.  There was a genial spirit in the place, a laughing fairy who would not let me be sad; and I found myself becoming most unromantically happy, eating my breakfast with a hearty appetite, thinking my cup of afternoon tea nectar for love of the dear hand that gave it.  And so, and so, till the new love, the purer and better love, grew and grew into a mighty tree, which was as an oak to an orchid, compared with that passion flower of earlier growth.  Mary, will you trust your life to me, as I trust mine to you.  I say to you almost in the words I spoke last year to Lesbia,’ and here his tone grew grave almost to solemnity, ’trust me, and I will make your life free from the shadow of care—­trust me, for I have a brave spirit and a strong arm to fight the battle of life—­trust me, and I will win for you the position you have a right to occupy—­trust me, and you shall never repent your trust.’

She looked up at him with eyes which told of infinite faith, child-like, unquestioning faith.

‘I will trust you in all things, and for ever,’ she said.  ’I am not afraid to face evil fortune.  I do not care how poor you are—­how hard our lives may be—­if—­if you are sure you love me.’

’Sure!  There is not a beat of my heart or a thought of my mind that does not belong to you.  I am yours to the very depths of my soul.  My innocent love, my clear-eyed, clear-souled angel!  I have studied you and watched you and thought of you, and sounded the depths of your lovely nature, and the result is that you are for me earth’s one woman.  I will have no other, Mary, no other love, no other wife.’

‘Lady Maulevrier will be dreadfully angry,’ faltered Mary.