"Yes, there's a spring near; I know this place well," and it seemed
to him that she flitted back and forth like a ray of light, bringing
all the water she could carry in a large leaf.
"Oh," he said, with a long deep breath, "did ever a sweeter draught
pass mortal lips, and from your hands, too, Jennie Burton. May I
die as I would have died here if I do not devote my life to making
you happy!"
"I accept that pledge," she said, with a wan smile that on her
pale, tear-stained face was inexpressibly touching. "It makes me
bold enough to ask one more promise."
"It's made already, so help me God!" he replied fervently.
A faint, far-away gleam of something like mirth came into her deep
blue eyes as she said, "I've bound you now, and you can have no
choice. Your pledge is this--that you will make me happy in my
own way. Now, not another word, not another motion; keep every
particle of life and strength till I come again with assistance,"
and she brought him water twice again, silencing him by an imperious
gesture when he attempted to speak, and then she disappeared.
"That was an odd pledge that she beguiled me into," he murmured.
"I fear that in the wiles of her unselfish heart she has caught
me in some kind of a trap.
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