will stay with me all your life?
Sylvia, for God's sake, let there be no more delusion or deceit!"

"Never again! I will tell you; I meant to do it at once, but it is so
hard--"

She turned her face away, and for a moment neither stirred. Then drawing
his head to its former resting-place she touched it very tenderly,
seeing how many white threads shone among the brown; and as her hand
went to and fro with an inexpressibly soothing gesture, she said, in a
tone whose quietude controlled his agitation like a spell--

"Long ago, in my great trouble, Faith told me that for every human
effort or affliction there were two friendly helpers, Time and Death.
The first has taught me more gently than I deserved; has made me humble,
and given me hope that through my errors I may draw virtue from
repentance. But while I have been learning the lessons time can teach,
that other helper has told me to be ready for its coming. Geoffrey, I
sent for you because I knew you would love to see me again before we
must say the long good by."

"Oh, Sylvia! not that; anything but that. I cannot bear it now!"

"Dear heart, be patient; lean on me, and let me help you bear it, for it
is inevitable."

"It shall not be! There must be some help, some hope. God would not be
so pitiless as to take both."

"I shall not leave you yet. He does not take me; it is I, who, by
wasting life, have lost the right to live."

"But is it so? I cannot make it true. You look so beautiful, so
blooming, and the future seemed so sure. Sylvia, show it to me, if it
must be."

She only turned her face to him, only held up her transparent hand, and
let him read the heavy truth. He did so, for now he saw that the beauty
and the bloom were transitory as the glow of leaves that frost makes
fairest as they fall, and felt the full significance of the great change
which had come. He clung to her with a desperate yet despairing hold,
and she could only let the first passion of his grief have way, soothing
and sustaining, while her heart bled and the draught was very bitter to
her lips.

"Hush, love; be quiet for a little; and when you can bear it better, I
will tell you how it is with me."

"Tell me now; let me hear everything at once. When did you know? How are
you sure? Why keep it from me all this time?"

"I have only known it for a little while, but I am very sure, and I kept
it from you that you might come happily home, for knowledge of it would
have lengthened