'

"Before I was through, I saw that I had carried my point. All the fine
airs went out of my lady, and she looked broken and humbled enough. I
might have said less, but I ached to say more to the insolent.

"'Enough, madam,' she gasped, 'stop.' And then said, more to herself
than to me, 'I could give heaven for him,'--the rest I rather guessed
from the motion of her lips than from any sound,--'but I cannot ask him
to give the world for me.'

"'Will you write the letter?' I asked.

"'No.'--She said the word with evident effort, and then, still more
slowly, 'I will give you a message. Say "I implore you never to write me
again,--to forget me. I beseech of you not to try me by any farther
appeals, as I shall but return them unopened."' I wrote down the words
as she spoke them. 'This is well,' I said when she finished; 'but it is
not enough. I must have the letter.'

"'The letter?' she said. 'What need of a letter? surely that is
sufficient.'

"'I do not mean your letter. I mean his,--the one which you hold in your
hands.'

"'This?' she queried, looking down on it,--'this?'

"I thought the repetition senseless and affected, but I answered,
'Yes,--that. He will not believe you are in earnest if you keep his
avowal of love. You must give him up entirely. If you let me send that
back, with your words, he shall never--at least from me--have clew or
reason for your conduct. That will close the whole affair.'

"'Close the whole affair,' she repeated after me, mechanically,--'close
the whole affair.'

"I was getting heartily tired of this, and had no desire to listen to an
echo conversation; so, without answering, I stretched out my hand for
it. She held it towards me, then drew it back and raised it to her heart
with the same gesture I had marked when she first opened it,--a gesture
as I said, of that, which was less of a caress than a spasm. Indeed, I
think now that it was wholly physical and involuntary. Then she handed
it to me, and, motioning towards the door, said, 'Go!'

"I rose, and, infamous as I thought her past deceit, wearied as I was
with the interview, small claim as she had upon me for the slightest
consideration, I said 'You have done well, Miss Ercildoune! I commend
you for your sensible decision, and for your ability, if late, to
appreciate the situation. I wish you all success in life, I am sure;
and, permit me to add, a future union with one of your own race, if that
will bring you happiness.'