"I have told you, have I not, that you are too late?
There is another, and if I have not promised to marry him at once, at least I can promise no one else." "Suppose I had been first, Ettie, would I have had a chance ?" The girl sank her face into her hands.

"I wish to heaven that you had been first!" she sobbed.
McMurdo was down on his knees before her in an instant.

"For God's sake, Ettie, let it stand at that!" he cried.

"Will you ruin your life and my own for the sake of this promise?
Follow your heart, acushla! 'Tis a safer guide than any promise before you knew what it was that you were saying." He had seized Ettie's white hand between his own strong brown ones.
"Say that you will be mine, and we will face it out together!" "Not here ?" "Yes, here." "No, no, Jack!" His arms were round her now.

"It could not be here.
Could you take me away ?" A struggle passed for a moment over McMurdo's face; but it ended by setting like granite.