her to be still and to go. But something
stronger than all else was within her too; and something that was new and
strange, and perilously sweet to her; a something that won the day.

She turned to him, stretching out her hands; the warm glow of the fire
lit up her lovely face and her eloquent pleading eyes, and flickered over
the graceful and beautiful figure, whose perfect outlines haunted his
fancy for ever.

"Stay, for my sake, because I ask you!" she cried, with a sudden passion;
"or else tell me why you must go."

There came no answering flash into his eyes, only he lowered them beneath
hers; he sat down suddenly, as though he was weary, on the chair whence
he had risen at her entrance, so that she stood before him, looking down
at him.

There was a certain repression in his face which made him look stern and
cold, as one who struggles with a mortal temptation. He stooped over the
little dog, and became seemingly engrossed in stroking it.

"I cannot stop," he said, in a cold, measured voice; "it is an
impossibility. But, since you ask me, I will tell you why. It can make no
possible difference to you to know; it may, indeed, excite your interest
or your pity for a few moments whilst you listen to me; but when it is
over and you go away you will forget it again. I do not ask you to
remember it or me; it is, in fact, all I ask, that you should forget.
This is what it is. Your wedding-day is very near; it is bringing you
happiness and love. I can rejoice in your happiness. I am not so selfish
as to lament it; but you will not wish me to be there to see it when I
tell you that I have been fool enough to dare to love you myself. It is
the folly of a madman, is it not? since I have never had the slightest
hope or entertained the faintest wish to alter the conditions of your
life; nor have I even asked myself what effect such a confession as this
that you have wrung from me can have upon you. Whether it excites your
pity or your contempt, or even your amusement, it cannot in any case make
any difference to me. My folly, at all events, cannot hurt you or my
brother; it can hurt no one but myself: it cannot even signify to you.
It is only for my own sake that I am going, because one cannot bear more
than a certain amount, can one? I thought I might have been strong
enough, but I find that it would be too much; that is all. You will not
ask me to stay any more, will you?"

Not once had he looked at her; not by a sing