eart, he demanded steadily,--

"To whom?"

This was the hardest question of all, for well she knew the name would
wound the deeper for its dearness, and while it lingered pitifully upon
her lips its owner answered for himself. Clear and sweet came up the
music of the horn, bringing them a familiar air they all loved, and had
often sung together. Warwick knew it instantly, felt the hard truth but
rebelled against it, and put out his arm as if to ward it off as he
exclaimed, with real anguish in countenance and voice--

"Oh, Sylvia! it is not Geoffrey?"

"Yes."

Then, as if all strength had gone out of her, she dropped down upon the
mossy margin of the spring and covered up her face, feeling that the
first sharpness of a pain like this was not for human eyes to witness.
How many minutes passed she could not tell, the stillness of the spot
remained unbroken by any sound but the whisper of the wind, and in this
silence Sylvia found time to marvel at the calmness which came to her.
Self had been forgotten in surprise and sympathy, and still her one
thought was how to comfort Warwick. She had expected some outburst of
feeling, some gust of anger or despair, but neither sigh nor sob,
reproach nor regret reached her, and soon she stole an anxious glance to
see how it went with him. He was standing where she left him, both hands
locked together till they were white with the passionate pressure. His
eyes fixed on some distant object with a regard as imploring as
unseeing, and through those windows of the soul he looked out darkly,
not despairingly; but as if sure that somewhere there was help for him,
and he waited for it with a stern patience more terrible to watch than
the most tempestuous grief. Sylvia could not bear it, and remembering
that her confession had not yet been made, seized that instant for the
purpose, prompted by an instinct which assured her that the knowledge of
her pain would help him to bear his own.

She told him all, and ended saying--

"Now, Adam, come to me and let me try to comfort you."

Sylvia was right; for through the sorrowful bewilderment that brought a
brief eclipse of hope and courage, sympathy reached him like a friendly
hand to uphold him till he found the light again. While speaking, she
had seen the immobility that frightened her break up, and Warwick's
whole face flush and quiver with the rush of emotions controllable no
longer. But the demonstration which followed was one she had n