ught that I should always be as happy as I was then, and that nothing
would ever be able to hurt me any more. Oh! I was so happy--so
happy--and I was such a fool, I thought it would last forever! I worked
hard and saved every penny that I could, and so did he; and we should
have been married next year if you hadn't come and spoiled it all, and
taken him away from me. And what is it to you now that you have got him?
You are too proud and cold to love him, or anybody else, and he doesn't
care for you a millionth part as much as he cares for me; yet just
because you have money and fame he has left me for you. And I love him
so--I love him so!" Here Quenelda's sobs choked her utterance, and her
torrent of words was stopped by tears.

"Come and sit down beside me and tell me quietly what is the matter,"
said Elisabeth gently; "I can do nothing and understand nothing while
you go on like this. But you are wrong in supposing that I took your
lover from you purposely; I did not even know that he was a friend of
yours. He ought to have told me."

"No, no; he couldn't tell you. Don't you see that the temptation was
too strong for him? He cares so much for rank and money, and things like
that, my poor Cecil! And all his life he has had to do without them. So
when he met you, and realized that if he married you he would have all
the things he wanted most in the world, he couldn't resist it. The fault
was yours for tempting him, and letting him see that he could have you
for the asking; you knew him well enough to see how weak he was, and
what a hold worldly things had over him; and you ought to have allowed
for this in dealing with him."

A great wave of self-contempt swept over Elisabeth. She, who had prided
herself upon the fact that no man was strong enough to win her love, to
be accused of openly running after a man who did not care for her but
only for her money! It was unendurable, and stung her to the quick! And
yet, through all her indignation, she recognised the justice of her
punishment. She had not done what Quenelda had reproached her for doing,
it was true; but she had deliberately lowered her ideal: she had wearied
of striving after the best, and had decided that the second-best should
suffice her; and for this she was now being chastised. No men or women
who wilfully turn away from the ideal which God has set before them, and
make to themselves graven images of the things which they know to be
unworthy, can escape