eople are all at the mountains.' That was enough,
and congratulating myself on the forethought which would save me some
hundred miles of needless delay, away I went, and for days have been
searching for you every where on that side of these hills which I know
so well. But no Yules had passed, and feeling sure you were on this side
I came, not around, but straight over, for this seemed a royal road to
my love, and here I found her waiting for me by the way. Now Sylvia, are
your doubts all answered, your fears all laid, your heart at rest on
mine?"

As the time drew nearer Sylvia's task daunted her. Warwick was so
confident, so glad and tender over her, it seemed like pronouncing the
death doom to say those hard words, "It is too late." While she
struggled to find some expression that should tell all kindly yet
entirely, Adam, seeming to read some hint of her trouble, asked, with
that gentleness which now overlaid his former abruptness, and was the
more alluring for the contrast--

"Have I been too arrogant a lover? too sure of happiness, too blind to
my small deserts? Sylvia, have I misunderstood the greeting you have
given me?"

"Yes, Adam, utterly."

He knit his brows, his eye grew anxious, his content seemed rudely
broken, but still hopefully he said--

"You mean that absence has changed you, that you do not love me as you
did, and pity made you kind? Well, I receive the disappointment, but I
do not relinquish my desire. What has been may be; let me try again to
earn you; teach me to be humble, patient, all that I should be to make
myself more dear to you. Something disturbs you, be frank with me; I
have shown you all my heart, what have you to show me in return?"

"Only this."

She freed herself entirely from his hold and held up her hand before
him. He did not see the ring; he thought she gave him all he asked, and
with a glow of gratitude extended both his own to take it. Then she saw
that delay was worse than weak, and though she trembled she spoke out
bravely ending his suspense at once.

"Adam, I do _not_ love you as I did, nor can I wish or try to bring it
back, because--I am married."

He sprung up as if shot through the heart, nor could a veritable bullet
from her hand have daunted him with a more intense dismay than those
three words. An instant's incredulity, then conviction came to him, and
he met it like a man, for though his face whitened and his eye burned
with an expression that wrung her h