white heat of emotion--"_why_ is it impossible? You said to me once,
with all your heart, that you thanked me, that I had taught you, helped
you. You cannot ignore the bond between us! And you are free. I have a
right to say to you--you thirst to save, to do good--come and save a
man that cries to you!--he confesses to _you_, freely enough, that he
has made a hideous mistake--help him to redeem it!"

She rose suddenly with all her strength, freeing herself from him, so
that he rose too, and stood glowering and pale.

"When I said that to you," she cried, "I was betraying "--her voice
failed her an instant--"we were both false--to the obligation that
should have held us--restrained us. No! _no!_ I will never be your wife!
We should hurt each other--poison each other!"

Her eyes shone with wild tears. As he stood there before her she was
seized with a piteous sense of contrast--of the irreparable--of what
might have been.

"What do you mean?" he asked her, roughly.

She was silent.

His passion rose.

"Do you remember," he said, approaching her again, "that you have given
me cause to hope? It is those two fanatics that have changed
you--possessed your mind."

She looked at him with a pale dignity.

"My letters must have warned you," she said simply. "If you had come
to-morrow--in prosperity--you would have got the same answer, at once.
To-day--now--I have had weak moments, because--because I did not know
how to add pain to pain. But they are gone--I see my way! _I do not love
you_--that is the simple, the whole truth--I could not follow you!"

He stared at her an instant in a bitter silence.

"I have been warned,"--he said slowly, but in truth losing control of
himself, "not only by you--and I suppose I understand! You repent last
year. Your own letter said as much. You mean to recover, the ground--the
place you lost. Ah, well!--most natural!--most fitting! When the time
comes--and my bones are less sore--I suppose I shall have my second
congratulations ready! Meanwhile--"

She gave a low cry and burst suddenly into a passion of weeping, turning
her face from him. But when in pale sudden shame he tried to excuse
himself--to appease her--she moved away, with a gesture that overawed
him.

"_You_ have not confessed yourself"--she said, and his look wavered
under the significance of hers--"but you drive me to it. Yes, _I
repent!_"--her breast heaved, she caught her breath. "I have been trying
to cheat myself