the soul, those words
have given me? Love of my heart, I know it is of no use to try and
persuade you to give up this plan now. But be careful of your life.
You are mine, remember. I won you when I held back your life that awful
day upon the brow of the cliff; and that consciousness, and that alone,
enabled me to do it. Whatever will and strength was given me then was
through that alone. Now, say, are you not mine? mine for ever--
throughout all the years?"

"Dear, `for ever' is a long time. Had we not better put it, `as long as
you think me worth keeping'?"

"Why do you say such a thing, and in such a voice?" This with a shiver,
as though she had received a sudden stab.

"Mona, what was it I was trying to impress upon you but a minute or so
back? I have got my life all behind me, remember. Nothing lasts. I
have seen eyes melt, as those dear eyes of yours are melting now--have
heard voices tremble in the same sweet intensity of tone. Well, it did
not last. Time, separation, new interests, and it was swept away; nor
did the process take very long, either. Nothing lasts! Nothing lasts!
It may be my curse; but, child, I have reached a stage at which one
believes in nothing and nobody."

"Did they--those of whom you speak--love you as I do? Was their secret
wrenched from them at the very jaws of death?"

"No. Never did I hear words of love under such, strange circumstances.
And yet, Mona, the fact that it was so, nearly turned me against you,
for I seemed bound--bound to you in common gratitude. If you had left
me to myself, I believe that feeling would have changed into strong
dislike."

"And when did the change come--the change for the better?" she said
softly.

"I don't know. It has all been so gradual. But there is something,
some magic about you, dear, that drew me to you in spite of myself--and
kept me there."

"Then one can love, really love, more than once in a lifetime?"

"Of course. The notion to the contrary was invented for the purposes of
fiction of the most callous sort. More than once, more than twice. But
the difference is that through it all runs the interwoven thread of
misgiving, that the thing is ill-judged and destined to end in blank--or
worse."

"Mine throughout all the years, did I not say just now?" she whispered,
again drawing down his head. "This seals it," and again speech was
stilled in a long, clinging kiss. "This is our farewell--only for a few
days--and