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life which forsook her face, and left her whole sweet body
inert--that I could have borne, for did she not merit death who had
killed my love, killed me?--but happiness, the glow of youthful
blood, the dreams of a youthful brain. And seeing this, seeing that
the heart I thought a child's heart had gone down in this
shipwreck, I felt my anger swell and master me body and soul, and
before I knew it, I was towering over her and she was cowering at
my feet, crushed and with hands held up in defense, hands that had
been like rose-leaves in my grasp, futile hands, but raised now in
entreaty for her life to me, to me who had loved her.

Why did they not move me? Why did my muscles tighten instead of
relax? I do not know; I had never thought myself a cruel man, but
at that instant I felt that this toy of my strong manhood had done
harm far beyond its value, and that it would comfort me to break it
and toss it far aside; only I could not bear the cry which now left
her lips:

"I am so young! not yet, not yet, Philo! I am so young! Let me live
a little while."

Was it a woman's plea, conscious of the tenderness she appealed to,
or only a child's instinctive grasping after life, just life? If it
were the first, it would be easy to finish; but a child's terror, a
child's longing--that pulled hard at my manhood, and under the
possibility, my own arm fell.

Instantly her head drooped. No defense did she utter; no further
plea did she make; she simply waited.

"You have deserved death." This I managed to utter. "But if you
will swear to obey me, you shall not pay your forfeit till you have
had a further taste of life. Not in my house; there is not
sufficient freedom within its walls for you; but in the broad
world, where people dance and sing and grow old at their leisure,
without duty and without care. For three months you shall have
this, and have it to your heart's content. Then you shall come back
to me my true wife, if your heart so prompts; if not, to tell me of
your failure and quit me for ever. But--" Here I fear my voice grew
terrible, for her hands instinctively rose again. "Those three
months must be lived unstained. As you are in God's sight this
hour, I demand of you to swear that, if you forget this or
disregard it, or for any