penetrating utterance of her name, "_Maggie! dearest Maggie!_" All
these things were an instant's revelation to her. She clasped her hands
helplessly, and the next moment Allan was taking the wet plaid off her
head and shoulders, and whispering, as he did so, all the fond words which
he had so long restrained.

She let him tell her again and again how much he loved her. She had no
more power to resist the sweet pleading than a man dying of thirst has
power to resist water. For a few moments she surrendered herself to a joy
so pure and so unexpected. "Oh Maggie, sweetest Maggie, tell me that you
love me: that you love none but me, that you will marry none but me,"
pleaded Allan.

"I have aye loved you, sir. I dreamed about you when I was a lassie. I
keep it the thocht o' you close in my heart. When you lookit at me the
night you cam' here first, I kent you, and I loved you that vera moment.
Whate'er the love I give to you, it is your ain, my soul brought it into
the warld for you, and for nae other man."

"In two years, Maggie, I will come for you. My wife! My wife!"

"I'll no say that, sir; not just yet. Marrying is o' this warld. Loving is
from somewhere beyond it. You told me about another leddy; and beside
that, I wouldna come atween you and your fayther.

"I have spoken to the other lady, and she has refused me."

"Puir thing! I'm dooting you asked her for the refusal. I hae had many a
sair heart anent her since you went awa'; and when I think o' her, I dinna
feel as if I deserved my ain joy."