with freezing
deliberation.

He stared at her. She could stand and tell him this to his face!

"So these are your sentiments, then," he observed, scornfully. "I always
suspected it; and now, for what I care, you may please yourself about
coming home, Elizabeth," he continued in a cold, indifferent tone.

"You ought always to have known what my sentiments were, Salve; that I
was, perhaps, too much attached to you."

"I shall send you money. You shall not have that as an excuse. So far as
I am concerned, you may enjoy the society of Fru Beck and your fine
friends as long as ever you please."

"And why should I not be allowed to speak to Fru Beck?" she cried, with
her head thrown back, and with an expression of rising anger. "You don't
mean, I suppose, that there is anything against me that should prevent
my entering her house? But there must be an end to this, Salve--and it
is for the sake of our love I say it; for if matters go on as they have
been going on so long between us," she concluded slowly, and with a
tremor in her voice, "you might live to see the day when it had ceased
to exist. These things are not in our own power, Salve."

He stood for a moment still, and gazed at her in speechless amazement,
while the flash of his dark keen eyes showed that a devil had been
roused within him, which he had the utmost difficulty in restraining.

"I will suppose that you have said this in a moment of excitement," he
said, with terrible calmness; "I shall not be angry with you--I shall
forget it; I promise you that. And I think that you have not been quite
yourself to-day--ill--"

"Don't deceive yourself, Salve. I mean every word--as surely as I love
you."

"Farewell, Elizabeth; I shall be here again on Wednesday," he said, as
if he only held to his purpose, and did not care to hear any more of
this. He left her then, and shut the door quietly behind him.

When he had gone, Elizabeth sank rather than sat down upon the bench.
She was frightened at what she had said. A profound dread took
possession of her. She knew his nature so well, and knew that she was
risking everything, that the result might be that he would leave her
altogether, and take to some misguided life far away from home. And yet
it must--it must be dared. And with God's help she would conquer, and
bind him to her closer than ever he had been before.

CHAPTER XXIX.

As Salve stood and steered for home, he had as yet only a dull
consciousnes