'love' comes to
her, she doesn't dream any longer--she wakes--to find her life
finished!--finished, Manella!--dry as a gourd with all the juice run
out!"

Manella rose from her seat beside him. The warm light in her eyes had
gone--her face was pale, and as she drew herself up to her stately
height she made a picture of noble scorn.

"I am sorry for you!" she said. "If you think these things your
thoughts are quite dreadful! You are a cruel man after all! I am sorry
I spoke of the beautiful little lady who came here to see you--you do
not love her--you cannot!--I felt sure you did--but I am wrong!--there
is no love in you except for yourself and your own will!"

She spoke, breathing quickly, and trembling with suppressed emotion. He
smiled,--and, rising, saluted her with a profound bow.

"Thank you, Manella! You give me a true character!--Myself and my own
will are certainly the chief factors in my life--and they may work
wonders yet!--who knows! And there is no love in me--no!--not what YOU
call love!--but--as concerns the 'beautiful little lady,' you may know
this much of me--THAT _I_ WANT HER!"

He threw out his hands with a gesture that was almost tragic, and such
an expression came into his face of savagery and tenderness commingled
that Manella retreated from him in vague terror.

"I want her!" he repeated--"And why? Not to 'love' her,--but to break
her wings,--for she, unlike a silkworm moth, knows how to use them! I
want her, to make her proud mind bend to MY will and way!--I want her
to show her how a man can, shall, and MUST be master of a woman's brain
and soul!"

A sudden heat of pent-up feeling broke out in this impulsive rush of
words;--he checked himself,--and seeing Manella's pale, scared face he
went up to her and took her hand.

"You see, Manella?" he said, in quiet tones--"There is no such thing as
'love,' but there is such a thing as 'wanting.' And--for the most
selfish reasons man ever had--I want HER--not you!"

The colour rushed back to her cheeks in a warm glow--her great dark
eyes were ablaze with indignation. She drew her hand quickly from his
hold.

"And I hope you will never get her!" she said, passionately--"I will
pray the Holy Virgin to save her from you! For you are wicked! She is
like an angel--and you are a devil!--yes, surely you must be, or you
could not say such horrible things! You do not want me, you say? I know
that! I am a fool to have shown you my heart--you have br