n soul from perdition. I think it is safe now--but oh,
my God! it is like the souls of many other mortals--saved in spite of
myself! Phyllis, you have been my salvation. You are a girl; you cannot
understand how near a woman may go to the bottomless pit through the
love of a man. You fancy that love lifts one to the heaven of heavens;
that it means purity--self-sacrifice. Well, there is a love that means
purity; and there is a love that means self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice:
that is, that a woman is ready to sacrifice herself--her life--her
soul--for the man whom she loves. I tell you--I, who know the truth--I,
who have been at the brink. It is not that the pit is dear to us; it
is that the man is dear to us, and we must go with him,--wherever he
goes,--even down into hell itself with him."

"Oh, Ella, Ella! this is the love of the satyr. It is not the love of
the one who is made in the image of God."

"Let it be what it is; it is a power that has to be reckoned upon so
long as we remain creatures of the earth, earthy."

"It is a thing that we should beat into the earth from which it came."
The girl had sprung to her feet, and was speaking with white face and
clenched hands. "Down into the earth"--she stamped upon the floor--"even
if we have to throw our bodies into the grave into which we trample it.
Woman, I tell you that the other love,--the love which is the truth,--is
stronger than the love of the satyr."

"Is it? is it, Phyllis? Yes, sometimes. Yes; it was a word that you
spoke in his hearing that saved him--him--Herbert--and that saved me
that night when I came to you--when I waited for you--you did not know
anything of why I came. I will tell you now--"

"No, no, no! Oh, Ella! for God's sake, tell me nothing! I think I know
all that I want to know; and I know that you had strength given to you
by God to come to me that night. I had not to go to you. But I have come
to you to-night. We are together, you and I; and we are the same as when
we were girls together--oh, just the same! Who shall come between us,
Ella?"

"Who? Who? You came here to save me. I knew it. But you had saved me
before you came. Phyllis, in this very room I was alone with him. I was
mad--mad with jealousy at the thought of losing him--though I knew that
I had lost him--I was mad! The passion breathed from the roses--the
twilight full of the memories of the spring we spent together in
Italy--all took possession of my heart--my soul. I whis