w what I am! I didn't know myself until
the last few days; until a gradual light shone on the truth and showed
me my heart, the heart I once thought would never grow warm with love!
Oh, I was a fool! I played with fire, and I have been burned. I am
burning still!" She pressed her hand against her bosom, and for an
instant the passion within her darted from her eyes and twisted the
red, perfectly formed lips. Her hand tightened on his arm, her breath
came pantingly, now quickly, now slowly. "Father I have come to you.
Most girls go to their mother. I have none. I come to you because
I--must! You ask me to put the--the idea out of my head." She laughed a
low laugh of self-scorn and bitterness. "Do you think I have not tried
to steel, to harden, my heart against this feeling which has been
creeping insidiously over me, creeping, stealing gliding like a cloud
until it has enveloped me? I have fought against it as never woman
fought against the approach of love. The first day--it was the day he
took me on the lake--ah, you don't remember, but I--Shall I ever forget
it!--the first day my heart went out to him I tried to call it back, to
laugh at my weakness, to call myself a fool! And I thought I had
succeeded in driving the insidious feeling away. But I was wrong. It
was there in my heart already, and day by day, as I saw him, as I heard
him speak, the thing grew until I could not see him cross the lawn,
hear him speak to the dog, without thrilling, without shivering,
shuddering! Father, have pity on me! No, I won't ask for pity! I won't
have it! But I ask, I demand, sympathy, your help! Father," she drew
nearer to him and looked into his eyes with an awful look of
desperation, of broken pride, of the aching craving of love, "you must
help me. I love him, I must be his wife--I cannot live without him, I
will not!"

He paled and gnawed at his thick lip.

"You talk like a madwoman," he said, hoarsely.

She nodded.

"Yes, I am mad; I know it; I know it! But I shall never be sane again.
All my days and all my nights are consumed in this madness. I think of
him--I call up his face--ah!" She flung her hands before her face and
swayed to and fro as if she were half dazed, half giddy with passion.
"And all day I have to fight against the risk, the peril of discovery.
To feel the women's eyes on me when he comes near, to feel that their
ears are strained to catch the note in my voice which will give me
away, place me under their