hin his own, and held them
tightly. In that moment the woman was weak, and the man was her master.

"Listen," he said. "Yes, you are right, I am poor; but that is not all.
Vera, for Heaven's sake, reflect, and pause before you wreck your whole
life. I cannot marry you--not only because I am poor, but also, alas!
because I am bound to another woman."

"Helen Romer!" she murmured, faintly; "and you love _her_?" A sick, cold
misery rushed into her heart. She strove to withdraw her hands from his;
but he only held them the tighter.

"No; by the God above us, I love you, and only you," he answered her,
almost roughly; "but I am bound to her. I cannot afford to marry her--we
have neither of us any money; but I am bound all the same. Only one thing
can set me free; if, in five years, we are, neither of us, better off
than now, she has told me that I may go free. Under no other conditions
can I ever marry any one else. That is my secret, Vera. At any moment she
can claim me, and for five years I must wait for her."

"Then I will wait for you five years too," she cried, passionately. "Is
my love less strong, less constant, than hers, do you think? Can I not
wait patiently too?" She wound her arms about his neck, and drew his face
down to hers.

"Five years," she murmured; "it is but a small slice out of one's life
after all; and when it is over, it seems such a little space to look back
upon. Dearest, some day we shall remember how miserable, and yet how
happy too, we have been this morning; and we shall smile, as we remember
it all, out of the fulness of our content."

How was he to gainsay so sweet a prophet? Already the train was
slackening, and the moment when they must part drew near. The beautiful
head lay upon his breast; the deep, shadowy eyes, which love for the
first time had softened into the perfection of their own loveliness,
mirrored themselves in his; the flower-shaped, trembling lips were close
up to his. How could he resist their gentle pleading? There was no time
for more words, for more struggles between love and duty.

"So be it, then," he murmured, and caught her in one last, passionate
embrace to his heart.

Five minutes later a tall young lady, deeply veiled as when she had
entered the train, got out of it and walked swiftly away from Tripton
station down the hill towards the high road. So absorbed was she in her
own reflections that she utterly failed to notice another figure, also
female and als