"I thought the mist was going to clear off better than this,
but that seems to look like dirty weather blowing up;" and he pointed to
the watery shroud behind which lay the waning moon.

"I wish a storm would come on," said Eve: "I should so like to see the
sea tossing up and the waves dashing over everything."

"What! while we two are sitting here?" said Adam, smiling.

"No: of course I don't mean now, this very minute, but some time."

"Some time when I'm away at sea?" put in Adam.

Eve gave a little shudder: "Not for the world! I should be frightened to
death if a storm came on and you away. But you don't go out in very bad
weather, do you, Adam?"

"Not if I can help it, I don't," he answered. "Why, would you mind if I
did?" and he bent down so that he could look into her face. "Eh, Eve,
would you?"

His tone and manner conveyed so much more than the words that Eve felt
it impossible to meet his gaze. "I don't know," she faltered. "What do
you ask me for?"

"What do I ask you for?" he repeated, unable longer to repress the
passionate torrent which he had been striving to keep under. "Because
suspense seems to drive me mad. Because, try as I may, I can't keep
silent any longer. I wanted, before I said more, to ask you about
somebody you've left behind you at London; but it's of no use. No matter
what he may be to you, I must tell you that I love you, Eve--that you've
managed in this little time to make every bit of my heart your own."

"Somebody in London?" Eve silently repeated. "Who could he mean? Not
Reuben May: how should he know about him?"

The words of love that followed this surprise seemed swallowed up in her
desire to have her curiosity satisfied and her fears set at rest. "What
do you mean about somebody I've left in London?" she said; and the
question, abruptly put, jarred upon Adam's excited mood, strained as his
feelings were, each to its utmost tension. This man she had left behind,
then, could even at a moment like this stand uppermost in her mind.

"A man, I mean, to whom, before you left, you gave a promise;" and this
time, so at variance was the voice with Adam's former tones of
passionate avowal, that, coupled with the shock of hearing that word
"promise," Eve's heart quailed, and to keep herself from betraying her
agitation she was forced to say, with an air of ill-feigned amazement,
"A man I left? somebody I gave a promise to? I really don't know what
you mean."

"Oh yes, you do;"