to you, oh cruel one and unjust! I pass by here in four months' time with my cargo from the Scotch shores. Here I will land, and, if you will meet me, I will say the same again, and you shall go back with me to my isle, and we will build you a nest in the fig-tree and the cactus-hedge of my own shore. There is my hand on it, as I am Daniello, son of Febo, of the house of Villamagna.'
He stood before her on the lonely beach, and held out his hand; he looked eager and passionate, and youthful and handsome as a young sea-god.
But he failed to touch her.
Her eyes laughed with incredulous scorn.
'In four months—we will see,' she said, with the same incredulity in her accent as in her glance.
'In four months you shall see,' said the sailor, with suppressed fury and pain. 'Oh, maiden, with whom have you dwelt that you have a heart like a stone to a man?'
'What matters it?' she said, with a shrug of her shoulders once more.
Her soul was dumb and blind as yet; she could not understand; she thought him mad, or in joke.
