would not breathe a word
to you that in all honor you should not hear, although my heart seems
bursting with its longing, and I would yield my soul with rapture from
its frail casket, for but one moment's right to give its secret wings. I
will bid you farewell to-morrow"--

"To-morrow!"

"Yes, the doctor says that the sea air will do me good, and an occasion
offers to-morrow which I shall embrace. It will be like setting forth
upon a journey through endless solitudes, where my only companions will
be a memory and a sorrow."

He paused a while, but continued with an effort at composure.

"Our hearts are tyrants to us, Miss Weems, and will not, sometimes, be
tutored into silence. I see that I have moved, but I trust not offended
you."

"You have not offended," she murmured, but in so low a tone that perhaps
the words were lost in the faint moan of the swaying foliage.

"What I have said," he continued earnestly, and taking her hand with a
gentle but respectful pressure, "has been spoken as one who is dying
speaks with his fleeting breath; for evermore my lips shall be shackled
against my heart, and the past shall be sealed and avoided as a
forbidden theme. We are, then, good friends at parting, are we not?"

"Yes."

"And, believe me, I shall be happiest when I think that you are
happy--for you will be happy."

She sighed so deeply that the words were checked upon his lips, as if
some new emotion had turned the current of his thought.

"Are you _not_ happy?"

The tears that, in spite of her endeavor, burst from beneath the
downcast lids, answered him as words could not have done. He was
agitated and unnerved, and, leaning his brow against his hand, remained
silent while she wept.

"Harold is a noble fellow," he said at last, after a long silence, and
when she had grown calmer, "and deserves to be loved as I am sure you
love him."

"Oh, he has a noble heart, and I would die rather than cause him pain."

"And you love him?"

"I thought I loved him."

The words were faint--hardly more than a breath upon her lips; but he
heard them, and his heart grew big with an undefined awe, as if some
vague danger were looming among the shadows of his destiny. Oriana
turned to him suddenly, and clasped his hand within her trembling
fingers.

"Oh, Mr. Wayne! you must go, and never see me more. I am standing on the
brink of an abyss, and my heart bids me leap. I see the danger, and, oh
God! I have prayed for power to