Let us never speak more, we two, of pardon or
offence."
We stood after that silent, Catriona looking on the deck and I on
her; and before there was more speech, a little wind having sprung
up in the nor'-west, they began to shake out the sails and heave in
upon the anchor.
There were six passengers besides our two selves, which made of it
a full cabin. Three were solid merchants out of Leith, Kirkcaldy,
and Dundee, all engaged in the same adventure into High Germany.
One was a Hollander returning; the rest worthy merchants' wives, to
the charge of one of whom Catriona was recommended. Mrs. Gebbie
(for that was her name) was by great good fortune heavily
incommoded by the sea, and lay day and night on the broad of her
back. We were besides the only creatures at all young on board the
Rose, except a white-faced boy that did my old duty to attend upon
the table; and it came about that Catriona and I were left almost
entirely to ourselves. We had the next seats together at the
table, where I waited on her with extraordinary pleasure. On deck,
I made her a soft place with my cloak; and the weather being
singularly fine for that season, with bright frosty days and
nights, a steady, gentle wind, and scarce a sheet started all the
way through the North Sea, we sat there (only now and again walking
to and fro for warmth) from the first blink of the sun till eight
or nine at night under the clear stars. The merchants or Captain
Sang would sometimes glance and smile upon us, or pass a merry word
or two and give us the go-by again; but the most part of the time
they were deep in herring and chintzes and linen, or in
computations of the slowness of the passage, and left us to our own
concerns, which were very little important to any but ourselves.
At the first, we had a great deal to say, and thought ourselves
pretty witty; and I was at a little pains to be the beau, and she
(I believe) to play the young lady of experience. But soon we grew
plainer with each other. I laid aside my high, clipped English
(what little there was left of it) and forgot to make my Edinburgh
bows and scrapes; she, upon her side, fell into a sort of kind
familiarity; and we dwelt together like those of the same
household, only (upon my side) with a more deep emotion. About the
same time the bottom seemed to fall out of our conversation, and
neither one of us the less pleased. Whiles she would tell me old
wives' tales, of which she had a wonderful variety, many of them
from my friend red-headed Niel. She told them very pretty, and
they were pretty enough childish tales; but the pleasure to myself
was in the sound of her voice, and the thought that she was telling
and I listening. Whiles, again, we would sit entirely silent, not
communicating even with a look, and tasting pleasure enough in the
sweetness of that neighbourhood. I speak here only for myself. Of
what was in the maid's mind, I am not very sure that ever I asked
myself; and what was in my own, I was afraid to consider. I need
make no secret of it now, either to myself or to the reader; I was
fallen totally in love. She came between me and the sun. She had
grown suddenly taller, as I say, but with a wholesome growth; she
seemed all health, and lightness, and brave spirits; and I thought
she walked like a young deer, and stood like a birch upon the
mountains. It was enough for me to sit near by her on the deck;
and I declare I scarce spent two thoughts upon the future, and was
so well content with what I then enjoyed that I was never at the
pains to imagine any further step; unless perhaps that I would be
sometimes tempted to take her hand in mine and hold it there. But
I was too like a miser of what joys I had, and would venture
nothing on a hazard.
What we spoke was usually of ourselves or of each other, so that if
anyone had been at so much pains as overhear us, he must have
supposed us the most egotistical persons in the world.