he race of women, the eternal predisposition. At the moment her
will was not sufficient to rule them to obedience. She was in the first
subservience to that power which feeds the streams of human history.

As she now listened to Charley reading, a sudden revulsion of feeling
came over her. Some note in his voice reassured her heart--if it needed
reassuring. The quiet force of his presence stilled the tumult in her,
so that her eyes could see without mist, her heart beat without
agony; but every pulse in her was throbbing, every instinct was alive.
Presently there rushed upon her the words that had rung in her ears and
chimed in her heart at the Rest of the Flax-beaters:

"Take all, dear love! thou art my life's defender;
Speak to my soul! Take life and love; take all."

Feelings lying beneath the mad conflict of emotion which had sent
her into this room in such unmaidenly fashion--feelings that were her
deepest self-welled up. Her breath came hard and broken.

As Charley read on, a breathing seemed to answer his own. It became
quicker than his own, it pierced the stillness, it filled the room with
feeling, it came calling to him out of the silence. He swung round, and
saw the girl in the doorway.

"Rosalie!" he cried, and sprang to his feet.

With a piteously pathetic cry, she flung herself on her knees beside the
tailor's bench where he worked every day, and, burying her face in her
arms as they rested on the bench, wept bitterly.

"Rosalie!" he said anxiously, leaning over her. "What is the matter?
What has happened?"

She wept more bitterly still; she made a despairing gesture. His hand
touched her hair; he dropped on a knee beside her.

"Oh, I am so ashamed, ashamed! I have been so wicked," she murmured.

"Rosalie, what has happened?" he urged gently. His own heart was beating
hard, his own eyes were responding to hers. The new feelings alive in
him, the forces his love had awakened, which, last night, had kept him
sleepless, and had been upon him like a dream all day--they were at
height in him now. He knew not how to command them.

"Rosalie, dearest, tell me all!" he persisted.

"I shall never--I have been--oh--you will never forgive me!" she said
brokenly. "I knew it wasn't true, but I couldn't help it. I saw her--the
woman--come from your house, and--"

"Hush! For God's sake, hush!" he broke in almost harshly. Then a better
understanding came upon him, and it made him gentle with her.