ied.
"Never will I thus debase myself!"

"Very well," he said, "then we must stay where we are. All I can say is,
I've made you a fair offer."

She paused. "Why not?" she said dreamily, as if thinking aloud. "Have
not I sued ere this for the decision of a shepherd judge--even of Paris?
'Tis but one last indignity, and then--he is mine indeed! Leander," she
added graciously, "it shall be as you will. Lead the way; I follow!"

But Matilda, who had been listening to this compromise with incredulous
horror, clung in desperation to her lover's arm, and sought to impede
his flight. "Leander!" she cried, "oh, Leander! surely you won't be mad
enough to go away with her! You won't be so wicked and sinful as that!
Remember who she is: one of the false gods of the poor benighted
heathens--she owned it herself! She's nothing less than a live idol!
Think of all the times we've been to chapel together; think of your dear
aunt, and how she'll feel your being in such awful company! Let the
police come, and think what they like: we'll tell them the truth, and
make them believe it. Only be brave, and stay here with me; don't let
her ensnare you! Have some pity for me; for, if you leave me, I shall
die!"

"Already the guards are at your gates," said the statue; "choose
quickly--while you may!"

He put Matilda gently from him: "Tillie," he said, with a convulsive
effort to remain calm, "you gave me up of your own free will--you know
that--and now you've come round too late. The other lady spoke first!"

As she still clung to him, he tried to whisper some last words of a
consoling or reassuring nature, and she suddenly relaxed her grasp, and
allowed him to make his escape without further dissuasion--not that his
arguments had reconciled her to his departure, but because she was
mercifully unaware of it.

THE ODD TRICK

XV.

"O heart of stone, are you flesh, and caught
By that you swore to withstand?"

_Maud._

Outside on the stairs Leander suddenly remembered that his purpose
might be as far as ever from being accomplished. The house was being
watched: to be seen leaving it would procure his instant arrest.

Hastily excusing himself to the goddess, he rushed down to his
laboratory, where he knew there was a magnificent beard and moustache
which he had been constructing for some amateur theatricals. With these,
and a soft felt hat, he completed a disguise in which he flattered
himse