“I am going on deck now, Gerty,” said he, in the same sad and gentle way.  “Shall I send Christina to you?”

For an instant she looked bewildered, as if she had not till now comprehended what was going on; and she said, quite wildly,—­

“Oh no, no, no, Keith; you don’t mean what you say!  You cannot mean it!  You are only frightening me!  You will put me ashore—­and not a word shall pass my lips.  We cannot be far down the river, Keith.  There are many places where you could put me ashore, and I could get back to London by rail.  They won’t know I have ever seen you.  Keith, you will put me ashore now?”

“And if I were to put you ashore now, you would go away, Gerty, and I should never see you again—­never, and never.  And what would that be for you and for me, Gerty?  But now you are here, no one can poison your mind:  you will be angry for a time; but the brighter days are coming—­oh yes, I know that:  if I was not sure of that, what would become of me?  It is a good thing to have hope—­to look forward to the glad days:  that stills the pain at the heart.  And now we two are together at last, Gerty!  And if you are angry, the anger will pass away; and we will go forward together to the glad days.”

She was listening in a sort of vague and stunned amazement.  Both her anger and her fear were slowly yielding to the bewilderment of the fact that she was really setting out on a voyage, the end of which neither she nor any one living could know.

“Ah, Gerty,” said he, regarding her with a strange wistfulness in the sad eyes, “you do not know what it is to me to see you again!  I have seen you many a time—­in dreams; but you were always far away, and I could not take your hand.  And I said to myself that you were not cruel; that you did not wish any one to suffer pain.  And I knew if I could only see you again, and take you away from these people, then your heart would be gentle, and you would think of the time when you gave me the red rose, and we went out in the garden, and all the air round us was so full of gladness that we did not speak at all.  Oh yes; and I said to myself that your true friends were in the North; and what would the men at Dubh-Artach not do for you, and Captain Macallum too, when they knew you were coming to live at Dare; and I was thinking that would be a grand day when you came to live among us; and there would be dancing, and a good glass of whiskey for every one, and some playing on the pipes that day!  And sometimes I did not know whether there would be more of laughing or of crying when Janet came to meet you.  But I will not trouble you any more now, Gerty; for you are tired, I think; and I will send Christina to you.  And you will soon think that I was not cruel to you when I took you away and saved you from yourself.”

She did not answer; she seemed in a sort of trance.  But she was aroused by the entrance of Christina, who came in directly after Macleod left.  Miss White stared at this tall white-haired woman, as if uncertain how to address her; when she spoke, it was in a friendly and persuasive way.