Valmai's voice was weak and low, and he had to bend his head over her
to catch the words: "You have been near death for my sake--those dreadful waves!"
"Do not think of them! I was in no danger. But I have been nearer
death since I have sat here watching your slow recovery. Now, Valmai,"
he said, realising that every moment of exposure in her cold, drenched
garments was danger to her, "be brave; give yourself up to me, and I
will carry you home."
But this adjuration was needless, for as he placed her gently down
while he rose to his feet he felt that she was limp and powerless as a
baby; he lifted her in his arms, and felt her weight no more than if he
had carried a storm-beaten bird. His own drenched condition he did not
consider--did not feel, while he climbed with careful footsteps up the
rugged path to Dinas, lighted only by the moon, whose beams were
continually obscured by the flying clouds. Pushing his way between the
furze and broom bushes, he was careful to let no stray branch catch
Valmai's face or hair, and as he reached the farm-yard in the rear of
the house, he was delighted to feel a strong and swift motion in her
frame.
"Put me down, please," she whispered, "on the bench by the door."
Cardo did so, reluctantly loosing his grasp of the tender form.
"Now knock."
And he obeyed, rapping loudly on the back door. The sound seemed to
rouse the inmates at once, for, with considerable thumping and
fumbling, somebody shuffled down the stairs.
"Go now, I am safe," said Valmai, in a whisper.
And Cardo went, but not before he had stooped down and pressed an
impassioned kiss upon the little listless hands. Neither spoke.
Valmai felt too weak and full of awakening happiness to trust her
voice, while Cardo felt the occasion was above the necessity for any
words. He waited behind the elder bushes until Gwen's full-moon face
appeared in the doorway, and her ejaculations of reproachful
astonishment (in which the Welsh language is prolific) showed that she
had seen Valmai, and fully appreciated the urgency of the situation.
"Mawredd anwl! what is the meaning of this? Where have you been? and I
thinking you were in your warm bed!"
"I have been to see Nance, and coming back over the Rock Bridge the sea
washed me away."
"Nance! Nance! all the time! What you want to go there so often?
It's no wonder if you are drowned crossing that nasty place in such a
storm, You are like a wet sea-gull. If you were a baby you wouldn't be
more trouble," etc., etc.
Cardo still waited until he saw in the kitchen the blaze of
freshly-piled logs on the culm fire, Gwen's voice still reaching him in
snappish, reproving tones through the closed door. Then he turned
away, and though he was bodily cold and saturated with the sea water,
his heart was full of warmth and a newly-awakened sense of the joy and
fulness of life.