To Have and To Hold | Page 9

each cheek, one small hand clenched
at her throat. I had heard her laugh as Sharpless touched the water, but
now there was only defiance in her face. As we gazed at each other, a
burst of laughter came to us from the meadow behind. I looked over my
shoulder, and beheld young Hamor, probably disappointed of a wife, -
with Giles Allen and Wynne, returning to his abandoned quarry. She
saw, too, for the crimson spread and deepened and her bosom heaved.
Her dark eyes, glancing here and there like those of a hunted creature,
met my own.
"Madam," I said, "will you marry me?"
She looked at me strangely. "Do you live here?" she asked at last, with
a disdainful wave of her hand toward the town.
"No, madam," I answered. "I live up river, in Weyanoke Hundred,
some miles from here."
"Then, in God's name, let us be gone!" she cried, with sudden passion.
I bowed low, and advanced to kiss her hand.
The finger tips which she slowly and reluctantly resigned to me were
icy, and the look with which she favored me was not such an one as
poets feign for like occasions. I shrugged the shoulders of my spirit, but
said nothing. So, hand in hand, though at arms' length, we passed from

the shade of the cedars into the open meadow, where we presently met
Hamor and his party. They would have barred the way, laughing and
making unsavory jests, but I drew her closer to me and laid my hand
upon my sword. They stood aside, for I was the best swordsman in
Virginia.
The meadow was now less thronged. The river, up and down, was
white with sailboats, and across the neck of the peninsula went a line of
horsemen, each with his purchase upon a pillion behind him. The
Governor, the Councilors, and the commanders had betaken themselves
to the Governor's house, where a great dinner was to be given. But
Master Piersey, the Cape Merchant, remained to see the Company
reimbursed to the last leaf, and the four ministers still found occupation,
though one couple trod not upon the heels of another, as they had done
an hour agone.
"I must first satisfy the treasurer," I said, coming to a halt within fifty
feet of the now deserted high places.
She drew her hand from mine, and looked me up and down.
"How much is it?" she asked at last. "I will pay it."
I stared at her.
"Can't you speak?" she cried, with a stamp of her foot. "At what am I
valued? Ten pounds - fifty pounds" -
"At one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, madam," I said dryly.
"I will pay it myself. To what name upon the ship's list do you
answer?"
"Patience Worth," she replied.
I left her standing there, and went upon my errand with a whirling brain.
Her enrollment in that company proclaimed her meanly born, and she
bore herself as of blood royal; of her own free will she had crossed an
ocean to meet this day, and she held in passionate hatred this day and

all that it contained; she was come to Virginia to better her condition,
and the purse which she had drawn from her bosom was filled with
gold pieces. To another I would have advised caution, delay,
application to the Governor, inquiry; for myself I cared not to make
inquiries.
The treasurer gave me my receipt, and I procured, from the crowd
around him, Humfrey Kent, a good man and true, and old Belfield, the
perfumer, for witnesses. With them at my heels I went back to her, and,
giving her my hand, was making for the nearest minister, when a voice
at a little distance hailed me, crying out, "This way, Captain Percy!"
I turned toward the voice, and beheld the great figure of Master Jeremy
Sparrow sitting, cross-legged like the Grand Turk, upon a grassy
hillock, and beckoning to me from that elevation.
"Our acquaintance hath been of the shortest," he said genially, when the
maid, the witnesses, and I had reached the foot of the hillock, "but I
have taken a liking to you and would fain do you a service. Moreover, I
lack employment. The maids take me for a hedge parson, and sheer off
to my brethren, who truly are of a more clerical appearance. Whereas if
they could only look upon the inner man! You have been long in
choosing, but have doubtless chosen" - He glanced from me to the
woman beside me, and broke off with open mouth and staring eyes.
There was excuse, for her beauty was amazing. "A paragon," he ended,
recovering himself.
"Marry us quickly, friend," I said. "Clouds are gathering, and we have
far to