me," she said, "for seeming even for a moment to despise and
abhor you. It was all so sudden. I do not mean to condemn you. I do not
mean to act or feel as if I were any less guilty than you are in all
this wrong. But when one has to face something awful without
preparation, it is very hard. No wonder that we do not know what to do.
Who but God can extricate us from this trouble? We are both guilty,
David. I think that it is because I have had so large a share in all the
rest that has been wrong that I cannot now feel towards you as I think I
ought. It is true that you have injured me terribly and irretrievably.
It is true that your hands are stained with blood, and yet I love you!
My heart yearns for you this moment as never before since we have known
each other. I long to take you in my arms."

He interrupted her by springing from his chair and attempting to embrace
her; but she waved him back with a strange majesty in her mien, and
continued. "I long to take you to my heart and comfort you. I could live
with you or I could die with you. But there is a voice within my soul
that tells me that we must part. Lives cannot be bound together by
crime. While misfortunes and mistakes may knit the hearts of lovers
together, evil deeds must force them apart! We are not lawfully married,
and so--"

"But we can be!" he exclaimed.

"No," she answered, in a voice that sounded to him like that of destiny.
"No, we cannot. No one would marry us if the facts were known. And if we
concealed them from others, we could not hide them from ourselves! We
have no right to each other. We could not respect and therefore we could
not truly love each other. Into every moment of our lives this guilty
secret would intrude. No, it is impossible. I see it clearly. Every
passing moment only makes it more plain. It is terrible, but it is
necessary, and what must be, must!"

"We shall not part!" he cried, springing towards her and seizing her by
the wrist. "God has bound us together and no man shall put us asunder!
We are as firmly linked by vice as by virtue. This secret will draw us
together! We cannot keep away from each other. I should find you if you
were in heaven and I in hell. You are mine! mine, I say! Nothing shall
part us. Have I not suffered for you and sinned for you? What better
title is there than that? It was not the sin, but the secret which has
alienated us, and now that I am not compelled to guard it any longer,
there can be no m