spoke of undying love!

But not a word of this was spoken. However true their hearts might be,
there was no fear of the tongue following up the error. Lord Hartledon
would no more have allowed himself to speak than she to listen. Neither
had the hands met in ordinary salutation; it was only when he resigned
the hat to her that the fingers touched: a touch light, transient, almost
imperceptible; nevertheless it sent a thrill through the whole frame. Not
exactly knowing what to do in her confusion, Miss Ashton sat down on the
bench again and put her hat on.

"I must say a word to you before I go on my way," said Lord Hartledon.
"I have been wishing for such a meeting as this ever since I saw you at
Versailles; and indeed I think I wished for nothing else before it. When
you think of me as one utterly heartless--"

"Stay, Lord Hartledon," she interrupted, with white lips. "I cannot
listen to you. You must be aware that I cannot, and ought not. What are
you thinking about?"

"I know that I have forfeited all right to ask you; that it is an
unpardonable intrusion my presuming even to address you. Well, perhaps,
you are right," he added, after a moment's pause; "it may be better that
I should not say what I was hoping to say. It cannot mend existing
things; it cannot undo the past. I dare not ask your forgiveness: it
would seem too much like an insult; nevertheless, I would rather have it
than any earthly gift. Fare you well, Anne! I shall sometimes hear of
your happiness."

"Have you been ill?" she asked in a kindly impulse, noticing his altered
looks in that first calm moment.

"No--not as the world counts illness. If remorse and shame and repentance
can be called illness, I have my share. Ill deeds of more kinds than one
are coming home to me. Anne," he added in a hoarse whisper; his face
telling of emotion, "if there is one illumined corner in my heart, where
all else is very dark, it is caused by thankfulness to Heaven that you
were spared."

"Spared!" she echoed, in wonder, so completely awed by his strange manner
as to forget her reserve.

"Spared the linking of your name with mine. I thank God for it, for your
sake, night and day. Had trouble fallen on you through me, I don't think
I could have survived it. May you be shielded from all such for ever!"

He turned abruptly away, and she looked after him, her heart beating a
great deal faster than it ought to have done.

That she was his best and dearest lov