"Ask me again"
"Will you say no?"
"I don't know. Probably."
Gabriel Oak eyed Bathsheba somewhat wearily, a sad smile upon his sunburnt face.
"I pray you, Miss Everdene, do not mock me."
"Mock you, Gabriel?"
Gabriel knew he was treading on very delicate ground by the intonation of her voice and the look she was giving him as if he had said something utterly farfetched.
"Is this a test? I proposed to you once and was rejected. In that moment I vowed never to ask you again and, in all these years, I never dared to insist. Now, upon my departure, you command me to stay and urge me to break my word. Are you jesting with me, Miss? Pray, do not do so."
"I am not." The previous mirth in her voice was gone. Bathsheba was decided to make him see she was being completely serious. "I don't intend to make sport of your heart. I never did and I never would." More softly than before, she pressed again, "Ask me, please".
For what seemed an eternity, he remained quiet. After letting his eyes search her countenance and finding it completely free from wickedness, he mustered all the courage he could. Thoughts long thought and restrained began to reappear in his head, and words bitterly swallowed revisited his lips once more. In a matter of seconds, he taught his heart to hope again, trusting in the goodness of hers.
"Will you let me marry you and love you, Bathsheba?"
She closed her eyes for a moment, basking in the sweetness of his new proposal. He studied her face with immense adoration, not daring to be completely overwhelmed by the magic of her expression. He hadn't forget his lady hadn't answered yet.
Without opening her eyes, she whispered, "About time, Mr. Oak".
He let out a laugh, in spite of himself. Nothing had gone according to plan from the beginning and it wasn't going to change now. None the less, it was the second time he had exposed himself thus and he was resolved not to tear himself from her without a proper answer.
"Is that a yes?" he inquired anxiously, his body trembling with adrenaline and anticipation. "Will you be mine?" he whispered urgently, knowing he was already hers.
She opened her eyes and smiled with all the sweetness he remembered from when she only was that beautiful young girl at Norcombe Hill that had come across his land.
"Yes!" she exclaimed at last with glee he had never heard before.
Her arms reached for him and, in one stride and a half, she was in his embrace. He held her with a vicious grip, as if he were a man starving and she, his only source of nourishment. Only when he felt her heartbeat beating violently against his did he exhale a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, "Oh, my darling" he rasped, his voice hearse with emotion. Tears were now streaming freely down his face into her neck.
Neither of them spoke; words could not convey the intensity of their feelings. For a long while they stood silently amidst the trees and the gentle breeze blowing through the meadows.