ur mother:
she was so happy about you. Oh, do go back to Mrs. Aylmer; do tell her
you didn't mean it. I know she must be very fond of you. It makes me so
wretched, so overpoweringly wretched, to think you should have done this
for me. Oh, do go back! She will be so glad to receive you. I know a
little about her: I know she will receive you with rejoicing."

"Do you know what she wants me to do?" he said. He was very white now.
He had thrown prudence to the winds.

"What?"

"You will not like it when I tell you; but you must at least exonerate
me: I am obliged to be frank."

"Say what you please; I am willing to listen."

Trevor dropped once more into a chair.

"When I last saw her she made a proposal to me. It was not the first
time; it was the second. She wanted me to marry--"

"I know," said Florence; "she wants you to marry Kitty. But why not? She
is so sweet; she is the dearest girl in all the world."

"Hush!" said Trevor. "I do not love her, nor does she love me. I can
scarcely bear to tell you all this. It is sacrilegious to think of
marriage under such circumstances, and above all things to mention it in
connection with a girl like Miss Sharston."

Florence found tears springing to her eyes.

"You are very good," she said, "too good, to sit here and talk to me. Of
course, if you don't love Kitty, there is an end of it. Are you quite
sure?"

"Positive. I know my own heart too well. I love another."

"Another?"

Florence had a wild fear for a moment that he was alluding to Bertha
Keys. A desperate thought came into her brain.

"At any cost, I will open his eyes: I will tell him the truth," she
thought.

Trevor had come nearer, and was bending forward and trying to take her
hand.

"You are the one I love," he said. "How can I, who love you with all my
heart and soul and strength, who would give my life for you, how can I
think of anyone else? It does not matter whether you are the most
amiable or the most unamiable woman in the world, Florence: you are the
one woman on God's earth for me. Do you hear me, Florence; do you hear
me? I love you; I have come to-day to tell you that I give my life to
you. I put it into your hands. I didn't mean to speak, but the truth has
been wrung from me. Do you hear me, Florence?"

Florence certainly did hear, but she did not speak. Trevor had taken her
hand, and she did not withdraw it. She was stunned for a moment. The
next instant there came over her, sweepin