Michael Penguyne Part 11

He at once changed his tone, which showed that he was deeply in earnest.

"Nelly," he said, "I have sought you for long years, and however others may admire you, they cannot care for you as I do--my love surpa.s.ses theirs a hundredfold. I can give you a comfortable home, and make you equal to any of the fine ladies we have been watching to-day. You need no longer carry that creel on your back, and slave as you have been doing, if you will become my wife. I tell you that I love you more than life itself, and ask you, will you marry me?"

Nelly would willingly have stopped Eban from talking on, but had hitherto been unable to get in a word.

"I have known you, Eban Cowan, since I way a girl, but I have never for one moment encouraged you to suppose that I would become your wife, and I now say positively that I cannot and will not. I thank you for all you have said to me, though I would rather you had left it unsaid; and I would wish to be friendly, as we have always been," she answered, firmly.

"Is that the only answer you can give me?" exclaimed Eban.

"I can give no other," replied Nelly.

"Do you never intend to marry, then?" asked Eban.

"I am not compelled to tell you my intentions," said Nelly.

"Do you love any one else? because I shall then know how to act,"

exclaimed Eban.

Nelly thought for a moment. "I will tell him; it will be the kindest thing to do, as he will then understand that I can never marry him, and wisely seek another wife."

"Yes, Eban Cowan, I do love another," she said, in a low voice. "I love Michael Penguyne, and can be no other man's wife than his. You have long called him your friend; let him be your friend still, but give up all thoughts of me."

"I now know how to act," muttered Eban, gloomily. "I had no idea that you cared for him; and if you choose to become a poor fisherman's wife, you must follow your own course; only, do not suppose that I can cease to love you."

"I cannot listen to what you say," exclaimed Nelly, walking on rapidly, and feeling very indignant at Eban's last remark.

He did not attempt to follow her, and she soon overtook Dame Lanreath and the friends who were accompanying her. When she looked round, Eban had disappeared. She felt greatly relieved at having got rid of him, and she hoped that, notwithstanding what he had said, he would abandon all hopes of becoming her husband.

Eban went home by another path, muttering fiercely that he would not be balked, and that Michael should pay dearly for coming between him and the girl he loved.

People little know, when they give way to their unbridled pa.s.sions, into what crimes they may be led.

Day after day Eban Cowan pondered over his rejection by Nelly, and chose to consider himself especially ill-treated.

"She should have let me know years ago that she intended to marry that fellow. How can she think of preferring him, a poor, hard-working lad, to me?" he exclaimed; and dreadful thoughts came into his mind. He made no attempt to drive them from him.

CHAPTER NINE.

The autumn was drawing on. The pilchard harvest had not been as successful as the fishermen desired, and they kept their boats at sea in the hopes of obtaining a share of the schools of fish which still hovered off their coasts. The drift-nets now could only be used with any prospect of success, and Michael was as active and energetic as ever. He had, indeed, greater reason for working hard, as Nelly had promised to become his wife in the ensuing spring. He wished to make every preparation in his power that she might begin her married life with as much comfort as a fisherman's wife could hope to do.

"Only we must look after granny too, and try to save her the long trudges she has had to make; and repay her, though that would be a hard matter, for all the care she took of us when we were young," he observed to Nelly, as they were talking over their future prospects.

Nelly heartily agreed with him; but when Dame Lanreath heard of their intentions, she laughed at the notion of giving up her daily walks to market.

"More reason for Nelly to stay at home to look after the house. Wait a bit till my limbs grow stiffer than they are as yet, and till she has got a little damsel of her own to trot alongside her as she used to trot alongside me," she answered.

"But, granny, I have been thinking of getting little Mary Lanaherne, Uncle Reuben's granddaughter, to go to market with me while you stay at home; she is quite ready to agree to my plan," said Nelly.

"Ah, I see you want to become a fine lady now you are going to marry, and have an attendant of your own," said the dame, laughing. "Bide a bit till you have need of help, and let my old limbs wag on while they have life in them."

"That will be for many years to come, I hope, granny," said Michael; "and to my eyes you don't seem to have become a day older since I first remember you, and that's longer than I can remember anything else; for I mind you holding me in your arms when father came home one day and gave me a fish to play with."

"That was a good bit ago, Michael, to be sure, and I should not like to have to lift you up now, lad, strong as my arms still are," answered the old dame, looking approvingly at the fine manly young fisherman as he stood before her. Nelly, too, gave him a glance of tender affection, and all three laughed merrily. Their hearts were light, for though theirs was a life of toil they willingly undertook their daily tasks, and were thankful for the blessings bestowed on them.

"It is time for me to be off," said Michael; "Uncle Reuben stays on sh.o.r.e this evening, so I am to act captain. We shall be back, I hope, soon after ten, as he always wishes us to be home early on Sat.u.r.day night, and as the weather looks pretty thick, and there is a nice lop of a sea on, we may expect to get a good haul."

Michael kissed Nelly's clear brow, and bestowed his usual "buss," as he called it, on granny's withered cheek; then shouldering his oilskin coat, he took his way towards the landing-place at the mouth of the harbour.

David and the rest of his crew were sitting about on the rocks with their short pipes in their mouths in readiness to go on board. Uncle Reuben had come down to see them off, and seemed half inclined to accompany them.

"If it were not for these aches in my back and sides, and that I promised my dame to stay on sh.o.r.e this evening, I would go with you, lads. But keep your weather eyes open. I cannot say I quite like the look of the weather. It may turn out fine, but it is very thick away to the southward."

"It will be fine enough for what we want, Uncle Reuben, and the 'Sea-Gull' does not mind a bit of a swell and a stiffish breeze, and we shall be back again almost before there is time to send a second hand to the bellows," answered Michael.

"G.o.d go with you, lads," said the old fisherman as the lads sprang on board. "If the weather gets worse, haul your nets and make the best of your way back. We will keep the light burning on the point, so that you will not miss your road into harbour at all events."

The "Sea-Gull" was shoved off, the oars got out, and, with her attendant drift-boat towing ahead, her hardy crew soon swept her out of the harbour. Her tanned sails were then hoisted, and, close-hauled, she stood away to beat up to her intended fis.h.i.+ng-grounds some distance to the southward, off the Gull Rock.

The old fisherman stood watching her for some time, more than once saying to himself, "I wish that I had gone, the trip would not have hurt me; but Michael is a careful lad, and, even if the weather does come on bad, he will not risk staying out longer than is prudent."

Bad, indeed, there shortly appeared every probability of the weather becoming. Dark green seas came rolling in crested with foam, and breaking with increasing loudness of sound on the rocky sh.o.r.e; the wind whistled and howled louder and louder.

Uncle Reuben b.u.t.toned up his coat to the chin as he gazed seaward. At last his daughter came to call him in to tea.

"Mother says you will be making yourself worse, father, standing out in the cold and damp."

He obeyed the summons; still he could not help every now and then getting up and going to the door to see what the weather was like; each time he came back with a less favourable report.

As it grew dark, in spite of his dame's expostulations he again went out and proceeded to the point, where he was also joined by three or four men, who had come either to attend to the beacon which was kept burning on dark nights, or to look out for the fis.h.i.+ng-boats which they expected would at once return in consequence of the bad weather which had now in earnest set in.

As soon as Michael had left his home, a young girl, the child of a neighbour who lived further up the harbour in the direction of the mill, came running to the cottage, saying that her mother was taken ill, and that as her father and brothers were away fis.h.i.+ng, there was no one to stay with her while she went to call for the doctor.

Nelly at once offered to go and stay with the poor woman, and to do her best.

"No, I will go," said Dame Lanreath; "maybe I shall be able to tell what is best to be done as well as the doctor himself. Do you run on, Nancy, and I will come and look after your mother."

As the dame was not to be contradicted, Nelly continued the work in which she was engaged, and her grandmother set off with active steps towards her neighbour's cottage.

Nelly had not been long alone when she heard a hasty footstep approaching. The door opened, and Eban Cowan stood before her. A dark frown was on his brow, his eyes she thought had a wild and fierce expression she had never before seen them wear. Her heart sank within her, and she in vain tried to speak in her usually friendly tone.

"Good evening, Eban; what brings you here at this hour?" she said, on seeing him stand gazing at her without uttering a word.

"Nelly, I have come to ask you a question, and as you answer it you will make me more happy than I have been for many a long day, or you will send me away a miserable wretch, and you will never, it may be, see me again."

"I shall be sorry not to see you again, Eban, for we have been friends from our earliest days, and I hoped that we should always remain so,"

answered Nelly, mustering all the courage she possessed to speak calmly.