must not, you must not speak so kindly to me."

"Must I not, my darling; how does a man generally speak to his future
wife?" and as she trembled and shrunk from him, he went on in the same
quiet voice, "if you are so ready to die for me, you will not surely
refuse to live for me. Do you think you owe me nothing for all these
years of desertion, Crystal; was there any reason that, because of
that unhappy accident--a momentary childish passion, you should break
my heart by your desertion?"

"I could not stay," she answered, weeping bitterly; "I could not stay
to see the ruin I had made. Oh, Raby, let me go, do not forgive me; I
have been your curse, and Margaret's, too!"

"Then come back and be our blessing; come back in your beauty and
youth to be eyes to the blind man, and to be his darling and delight.
Crystal, I am wiser now--I shall make no more mistakes; indeed, I
always loved you, dear; poor Mona was no more to me than any other
woman."

"You loved me, Raby?"

"Yes, most truly and deeply; but you were so young, my sweet; and I
did not think it right to fetter your inexperienced youth--you were so
unconscious of your own rare beauty; you had seen so few men. 'Let her
go out into the world,' I said, and test her power and influence. I
will not ask her to be my wife yet. How could I know you would never
change, Crystal--that your heart was really mine?"

"It has always been yours," she murmured; but, alas! those sweet
blushes were lost on her blind lover.

"Yes, I know it now; Margaret has helped me to understand things. I
know now, you poor child, that you looked upon Mona as your rival;
that you thought I was false to you; that in my ignorance I made you
endure tortures. It is I who ought to ask your pardon, love, for all I
made you suffer."

"No, no."

"We must both be wiser for the future. Now put your hand in mine,
Crystal, and tell me that you are content to take the blind man for
your husband, that the thought of a long life beside him does not
frighten you; that you really love me well enough to be my wife;" and,
as he turned his sightless face toward her, Crystal raised herself and
kissed his blind eyes softly. "'She loved much,'" she whispered,
"'because much had been forgiven her.' Oh, how true that is; I deserve
only to be hated, and you follow me across the world to ask me to be
your wife. Your love has conquered, Raby; from this day your will
shall be mine."

* * *