Volume Two Chapter 10 At Ardkill

Sharp eyes had watched for the young lord's approach. As he came near to the cottage the door was opened and Kate O'Hara rushed out to meet him. Though his mind was turned against her,--was turned against her as hard and fast as all his false reasonings had been able to make it,--he could not but accord to her the reception of a lover. She was in his arms and he could not but press her close to his bosom. Her face was held up to his, and of course he covered it with kisses. She murmured to him sweet warm words of passionate love, and he could not but answer with endearing names. "I am your own,--am I not?" she said as she still clung to him. "All my own," he whispered as he tightened his arm round her waist.

Then he asked after Mrs. O'Hara. "Yes; mother is there. She will be almost as glad to see you as I am. Nobody can be quite so glad. Oh Fred,--my darling Fred,--am I still to call you Fred?"

"What else, my pet?"

"I was thinking whether I would call you--my Lord."

"For heaven's sake do not."

"No. You shall be Fred,--my Fred; Fred to me, though all the world besides may call you grand names." Then again she held up her face to him and pressed the hand that was round her waist closer to her girdle. To have him once more with her,--this was to taste all the joys of heaven while she was still on earth.