cousin who is at school, and Waldo, very much. You see I have known them
so long!"

"Oh, Em, do not talk to me so coldly!" Gregory cried, seizing the little
arm that rested on the gate, and pressing it till she was half afraid. The
herdsman had moved away to the other end of the kraal now, and the cows,
busy with their calves, took no notice of the little human farce. "Em, if
you talk so to me I will go mad! You must love me, love me better than
all! You must give yourself to me. I have loved you since that first
moment when I saw you walking by the stone wall with the jug in your hands.
You were made for me, created for me! I will love you till I die! Oh, Em,
do not be so cold, so cruel to me!"

He held her arm so tightly that her fingers relaxed their hold, and the
cloak fluttered down on to the ground, and the wind played more roughly
than ever with the little yellow head.

"I do love you very much," she said; "but I do not know if I want to marry
you. I love you better than Waldo, but I can't tell if I love you better
than Lyndall. If you would let me wait for a week I think perhaps I could
tell you."

Gregory picked up the cloak and wrapped it round her.

"If you could but love me as I love you," he said; "but no woman can love
as a man can. I will wait till Saturday. I will not once come near you
till then. Good-bye! Oh, Em," he said, turning again, and twining his arm
about her, and kissing her surprised little mouth, "if you are not my wife
I cannot live. I have never loved another woman, and I never shall!--
never, never!"