sacrifice both our lives to a scruple that is out of place here. Don't
hesitate; don't delay. I have a carriage waiting outside; end all our
misery by one act of courage, and trust yourself to me; did I ever fail
you?"

"For shame, Henry! for shame!"

"It is the only way to happiness. You were quite right; if I kill that
wretch we shall be parted in another way, always parted; now we can be
together for life. Remember, dearest, how I begged you in this very room
to go to the United States with me: you refused: well, have you never
been sorry you refused? Now I once more implore you to be wise and
brave, and love me as I love you. What is the world to us? You are all
the world to me."

"Answer him, Jael; oh, answer him!"

"Nay, these are things every woman must answer for herself."

"And I'll take no answer but yours." Then he threw himself at her feet,
and clasping her in his arms implored her, with all the sighs and tears
and eloquence of passion, to have pity on them both, and fly at once
with him.

She writhed and struggled faintly, and turned away from him, and fell
tenderly toward him, by turns, and still he held her tight, and grew
stronger, more passionate, more persuasive, as she got weaker and
almost faint. Her body seemed on the point of sinking, and her mind of
yielding.

But all of a sudden she made a desperate effort. "Let me go!" she cried.
"So this is your love! With all my faults and follies, I am truer than
you. Shame on your love, that would dishonor the creature you love! Let
me go, sir, I say, or I shall hate you worse than I do the wretch whose
name I bear."

He let her go directly, and then her fiery glance turned to one long
lingering look of deep but tender reproach, and she fled sobbing.

He sank into a chair, and buried his face in his hands.

After a while he raised his head, and saw Jael Dence looking gravely at
him.

"Oh, speak your mind," said he, bitterly.

"You are like the world. You think only of yourself; that's all I have
to say."

"You are very unkind to say so. I think for us both: and she will think
with me, in time. I shall come again to-morrow."

He said this with an iron resolution that promised a long and steady
struggle, to which Grace, even in this first encounter, had shown
herself hardly equal.

Jael went to her room, expecting to find her as much broken down as she
was by Henry's first visit; but, instead of that, the young lady was
walking rapidly t