Do not say anything yet to any one.'
'Elspie,' he answered,
"Does not my friend go on Friday? I then shall see nothing of you:
Do not I myself go on Monday? 'But oh!' he said, 'Elspie,
Do as I bid you, my child; do not go on calling me _Mr._
Might I not just as well be calling you _Miss Elspie?_
Call me, this heavenly night, for once, for the first time, Philip.'
"'Philip,' she said, and laughed, and said she could not say it.
'Philip,' she said. He turned, and kissed the sweet lips as they
said it.
"But, on the morrow, Elspie kept out of the way of Philip;
And, at the evening seat, when he took her hand by the alders,
Drew it back, saying, almost peevishly:
"'No, Mr. Philip;
I was quite right last night: it is too soon, too sudden,
What I told you before was foolish, perhaps,--was hasty.
When I think it over, I am shocked and terrified at it.'"....
"Ere she had spoken two words, had Philip released her fingers;
As she went on, he recoiled, fell back, and shook, and shivered.
There he stood, looking pale and ghastly; when she had ended,
Answering in a hollow voice:
"'It is true; oh! quite true, Elspie.
Oh! you are always right; oh! what, what, have I been doing?
I will depart to-morrow. But oh! forget me not wholly,
Wholly, Elspie, nor hate me; no, do not hate me, my Elspie.
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