nsent to be mine.

'Then it was that I betrayed myself. I let my mad passion
peep forth for an instant, and in that instant I was undone.
I saw I had terrified and shocked her. I would have given
worlds to recall that volcanic outburst, but it was too
late. Her feelings, mild hitherto, were soured by the
lightning of my intense love. From that hour she turned from
me with deeper and deeper aversion, and from that hour my
passion grew and grew upon me with the force of mania, till
it usurped the functions of reason, morality, prudence, and
every motive that guides and controls the life of man, and
left me with but one dominating, desperate idea, that I must
possess Eleanor Owen, or perish.

'I need not dwell on what happened during the next year.
How I saw her turning from me, with a sickening heart; how I
hungered for the tokens of even that mild friendship she had
shown me of old, and how even that was denied; how I brooded
upon my wrongs till I scarce knew whether I loved or hated
her, whether it was passion or revenge that inspired my mad
resolve to kill her rather than forfeit my right to her.

'You, yes, you, came between us again. God help me, I
sometimes think she must have loved you all along,
unconsciously. She asked me for your portrait; I refused.
She persisted. Then my wrath broke out in an ungovernable
transport of jealousy, and I showed--I must have
shown--something of the black stuff that was working in my
heart. I saw her lose colour. I saw her tremble, and I
rushed away to calm myself if I could.

'From that moment I could see that all friendly feeling was
at an end between us. She hated me and I hated her. But I
would not give her up. The very animosity between us seemed
only to feed my fierce desire to have her and make her my
slave. Am I writing wildly? Do you start back and shudder
at all this? Go on; you have not yet come to a glimmering of
the worst!

'I began to grow impatient for a final end to this state of
things, and I pressed her to name a day for the marriage.
She replied, putting me off. I went down by the next train
to have it out with her. And then at last we spoke freely.

'I accused her of having ceased to love me. She said she had
never really felt love for me, but only affection