"--

Maurice uttered these words excitedly and almost in a tone of reproach.

"No, Maurice," returned Madeleine, growing ghastly pale, and speaking
with an effort which gave her voice a hollow, unnatural sound. "He whom
I love has never aided me,--I have received no assistance from him,--I
have given him no right to offer any."

"He whom you love!" repeated Maurice with culminating anguish. "Then you
love him,--you _do_ love him still? Answer me, Madeleine. Do not torture
me by suspense! Answer me,--you love him still?"

"_As ever!_" replied Madeleine, and an irrepressible blush chased the
ashy whiteness of her cheeks.

"And he is _here_,--here in America,--here in Washington?" asked
Maurice.

"Yes."

"And you see him? You have seen him perhaps this very day?"

"Yes."

"And he loves you,--loves you as much as ever?"

Madeleine silently bowed her head, but the radiant light that overspread
her countenance answered more unmistakably than the affirmative action.

"Ah, Madeleine, can you think, can you believe that his love equals
mine? You do not answer; speak, I implore you! _Do_ you believe that
_he_ has loved you as _I_ love you?"

Madeleine felt impelled to reply because she deemed it best for Maurice
to be confirmed in his error. In a low, tremulous tone, and with her
eyes swimming in the soft lustre of a half-formed tear, she murmured,
"Yes."

"No! no! It cannot be!" burst forth Maurice. "No woman was ever loved
_twice_ with such absorbing devotion. You cannot be to him what you are
to me! You cannot have saved him from all the perils from which you have
saved me! Ah, Madeleine, since you have been selected to fill the place
of a guardian angel to me, why, why was my love rejected? Why did
another rob me of your heart? Why were you willing to unite your fate to
his and not to mine?"

"Maurice," said Madeleine, regaining some degree of composure, "I shall
never forget the noble offer you made me when I was a desolate outcast;
I shall never forget the joy it gave me,--the gratitude it caused
me,--the good it did me, at the very moment when I was forced, _ay
forced_ to reject that offer. But had there been no other barrier could
I have consented to become a burden to you? I,--poor and
friendless,--_could_ I have consented to draw down the anger of your
family upon you? _Could_ I have consented to separate you from them?--to
make a lasting feud between you? Say, Maurice, would you have had me do
this?"