ffs with queer fellows; and
others have seen him, too. But nobody likes to give him up to the
constables, except me, and I've settled it that I'll tell what he
is after. He deserves it, the way he treats you. And it will be a
fine way of disgracing him. I'll risk that he'll bewitch me."

A dead silence followed his words. Then Ellenor's hand stole into
his, and Ellenor's voice said softly,

"Perrin, is it you love me yet?"

He lifted her hand and kissed it.

"I love you better than even my mother. I love you next best to
God."

"And yet, Perrin, I am not a good girl."

"Don't dare to say that to me! You _are_ good when you are not
thinking of that scoundrel. It's him that has made people speak
about you like they do! But, listen, Ellenor, if you was the
blackest of the black, I'd love you, because it's you, and because I
was made to love you, once and for ever."

She burst into a passion of tears.

"That's how I love him! He's the blackest of the black--a liar, a
smuggler, a cheat to his wife and to me, too fond of his glass,
cruel to the poor, mad for money, pretending to be pious of a
Sunday; and yet, yet, I love him, because it's him, and because I
was made to love him, once and for ever."

"My God! how you hurt me!" cried poor Perrin, clasping her hand
closer in his.

She cried quietly for a little while, and Corbet did not try to
check her tears. His tender love made him wise and gentle as his own
mother. At last she was quite still, and presently she said,

"Perrin, if you love me, I'll be your wife some day."

"Do you really mean it? It seems too good to be true. I can't take
it in, as you see. And yet if it does come to pass, there'll be no
man prouder than me in the whole of Guernsey!"

"But, if I am to be your wife, there'll be a condition."

"Condition! You can make a hundred, dear Ellenor."

"I don't know if you'll agree to this one, however!"

"Of course I will! I promise you beforehand."

"Promise! Promise! Quickly!"

He laughed gaily, wild with joy at her sweet mood and at the fair
prospect the future held for him.

"I promise I'll agree gladly to your condition, whatever it is."

"Then listen to it. You have promised you'll never give up Monsieur
Le Mierre to the constables."

Perrin was silent for a long time; then he said, in a voice hoarse
with emotion,

"It seems I am a very stupid chap, and it takes me a little while to
see what a woman is driving at. But though you are