"No."
"You could not endure me beside you, to--to live--with me near you?"
"'Twould mean only pain, Joanna."
"Then go!" cried she. "I am not so base-souled to weep and wheedle, to scheme and pray for thing that can never be truly mine, or to keep you here in hated bondage--go! The boat lieth yonder; take her and what you will--only--get you gone!"
Now at this I rose and would have taken her hands but she snatched them behind her, and now I wondered at her deathly pallor,--her very lips were pale and set.
"Joanna," I stammered, "do you mean--am I--"
"Go!"
"Nay, first hear me say that wheresoever I go needs must I--"
"Respect me!" cried she with a strange, wild laugh. "Oh, begone!"
"Joanna," said I, "for any harsh word I have spoke you in the past, for any pain you have suffered because of me, I do most surely grieve and would most humbly crave your forgiveness and for this generous act I--I--"
"Respect me?" said she in a small voice. "Ah, cannot you see--how you--hurt me?" And now all suddenly I did strange thing for, scarce knowing what I did, I caught her in my arms and kissed her hair, her eyes, her cold lips and then, half ashamed, turned to leave her.
"Stay!" said she, but I never heeded. "Martino!" she called, but I never paused; and then, being come to the mouth of the cave, I heard the quick, light sound of her feet behind me and as I stepped into the moonlight felt two arms that swung me aside, saw Joanna leap before me as the night-silence was split by a ringing, deafening roar; and then I had her in my arms and she, smiling up at me with blood upon her lips, hid her face in my breast. "Here in thine arms do I lie for the third time--and last, Martino!" she sighed, and so Resolution found us.
"What!" he gasped. "Oh, God! What--?"
"Some one has shot Joanna!"
"Aye, Martin, 'twas I!" and I saw the pistol yet smoking in his hand--"I shot her thinking 'twas you--Oh, God!"
"Nay, Resolution," said Joanna, opening her eyes. "You did very right--'twas only that I--being a woman--changed my mind--at the last. 'Twas I bid him--kill you, Martino--if you came forth, but I--I dreamed you--you would not leave me. Nay, let be, Resolution, I'm a-dying--yes!"
"Ah, forbid it, God--Oh, God of Mercies, spare her!" he cried, his hands and eyes uplift to the radiant, starry heavens.
"Nay, grieve not, Resolution--dear friend!" she murmured painfully. "For oh, 'tis--a good thing to die--by your hand and with--such reason! Martino, when--you shall wed your Joan--Damaris, say I--gave you to her with--my life because I loved you--better than life--and Death had--no fears. I go back to life--a better life--where I shall find you one day, Martino, and learn what--happiness is like--mayhap. Resolution," she whispered, "when I--am dead, do not let me lie a poor, pale thing to grieve over--bury me--bury me so soon as I--am dead. Dig me a grave--above the tide! Promise this!"