s. For time
and for eternity they are united one to the other. Put land and sea
between them--they will still be together; they will communicate in
visions, they will be revealed to each other in dreams. Bind them by
worldly ties; wed your son, in the time to come, to another woman, and
my grand-daughter to another man. In vain! I tell you, in vain! You may
doom them to misery, you may drive them to sin--the day of their union
on earth is still a day predestined in heaven. It will come! it will
come! Submit, while the time for submission is yours. You are a doomed
man. I see the shadow of disaster, I see the seal of death, on your
face. Go; and leave these consecrated ones to walk the dark ways of
the world together, in the strength of their innocence, in the light of
their love. Go--and God forgive you!" In spite of himself, my father was
struck by the irresistible strength of conviction which inspired those
words. The bailiff's mother had impressed him as a tragic actress might
have impressed him on the stage. She had checked the mocking answer on
his lips, but she had not shaken his iron will. His face was as hard as
ever when he turned my way once more.

"The last chance, George," he said, and counted the last number:
"Three!"

I neither moved nor answered him.

"You _will_ have it?" he said, as he fastened his hold on my arm.

I fastened _my_ hold on Mary; I whispered to her, "I won't leave you!"
She seemed not to hear me. She trembled from head to foot in my arms. A
faint cry of terror fluttered from her lips. Dermody instantly stepped
forward. Before my father could wrench me away from her, he had said in
my ear, "You can give her to _me_, Master George," and had released
his child from my embrace. She stretched her little frail hands out
yearningly to me, as she lay in Dermody's arms. "Good-by, dear," she
said, faintly. I saw her head sink on her father's bosom as I was
dragged to the door. In my helpless rage and misery, I struggled against
the cruel hands that had got me with all the strength I had left. I
cried out to her, "I love you, Mary! I will come back to you, Mary! I
will never marry any one but you!" Step by step, I was forced further
and further away. The last I saw of her, my darling's head was still
resting on Dermody's breast. Her grandmother stood near, and shook her
withered hands at my father, and shrieked her terrible prophecy, in
the hysteric frenzy that possessed her when she saw the sep