t.

"With my whole soul!" she answered, in a low, very low, but vehement
voice. "With my whole soul."

"And you have owned it to him?"

"Yes."

"Tell me," said I, "how it was."

"I think I have loved him since almost the first time I saw him--he made
quite a different impression upon me than other men do--quite. I hardly
knew myself. He mastered me. No other man ever did--except--" she
shuddered a little, "and that only because I tied myself hand and foot.
But I liked the mastery. It was delicious; it was rest and peace. It
went on for long. We knew--each knew quite well that we loved, but he
never spoke of it. He saw how it was with me and he helped me--oh, why
is he so good? He never tried to trap me into any acknowledgment. He
never made any use of the power he knew he had except to keep me right.
But at the Maskenball--I do not know how it was--we were alone in all
the crowd--there was something said--a look. It was all over. But he was
true to the last. He did not say, 'Throw everything up and come to me.'
He said, 'Give me the only joy that we may have. Tell me you love me.'
And I told him. I said, 'I love you with my life and my soul, and
everything I have, for ever and ever.' And that is true. He said, 'Thank
you, milady. I accept the condition of my knighthood,' and kissed my
hand. There was some-one following us. It was Sir Peter. He heard all,
and he has punished me for it since. He will punish me again."

A pause.

"That is all that has been said. He does not know that Sir Peter knows,
for he has never alluded to it since. He has spared me. I say he is a
noble man."

She raised herself, and looked at me.

Dear sister! With your love and your pride, your sins and your folly,
inexpressibly dear to me! I pressed a kiss upon her lips.

"Von Francius is good, Adelaide; he is good."

"Von Francius would have told me this himself, but he has been afraid
for me; some time ago he said to me that he had the offer of a post at a
distance. That was asking my advice. I found out what it was, and said,
'Take it.' He has done so."

"Then you have decided?" I stammered.

"To part. He has strength. So have I. It was my own fault. May--I could
bear it if it were for myself alone. I have had my eyes opened now. I
see that when people do wrong they drag others into it--they punish
those they love--it is part of their own punishment."

A pause. Facts, I felt, were pitiless; but the glow of friendship for
von F