rt, "but I have not the strength
to deny myself the only happiness I have ever pictured as possible. It
is not as if I had frittered away my life on other women--on mere
sensual pleasures. From my boyhood up to the present hour her power has
been the same--her charm for me the same, I love her. That says all,
and yet not half enough. Human nature is weak. I had dreamt of another
life--of a higher and nobler field of duty, apart from the selfish joys
that are inseparable from mere human ties--but I can yield that dream up
without a regret. I can turn back from the threshold I have crossed...
May there not be a purpose in our meeting like this--in the prospect of
our union? If the time has come to teach, and to speak out boldly what
has long been veiled in mysticism and doubt, where could a teacher so
eloquent be found, or one whose natural gifts and loveliness could make
those teachings of so much weight? and I--I, too, can help and protect
her. Our souls need not descend from the spiritual level they have
attained--they may meet and touch, and yet expand in the duality of
perfect love and perfect comprehension. It is a glorious thought," and
he lifted his eyes to the starry heights, that to him held all the
mystery of peopled worlds--and were no mere pin-pricks of light, created
to illuminate _one_. "A beautiful thought--God grant it may be
realised!"

But even as his eyes rested on the solemn splendour of the heavens--even
as the human passions of the senses grew stilled beneath the loftier
aspirations of the soul--even as that involuntary prayer sprang from
heart to lips, some inner consciousness whispered like a warning
voice--"_it cannot be_."

He started as if that sound were audible. A cold and sudden terror
swept over his body like a chilling wind. "Bah," he cried. "What a
nervous fool I am! Is this all my love has done for me--made me like a
frightened child, starting at shadows?"

He turned abruptly, and went within to seek his own room.

It was just midnight. Lights were being extinguished in the public
rooms and corridors--silence and sleep were settling down upon the vast
building.

Colonel Estcourt exchanged his evening clothes for the comfort of
dressing-gown and slippers, and then threw himself into an easy chair
before the fire which was blazing brightly and cheerfully in the grate.

It was the conventional hotel bedroom. A dressing-table stood in the
window; the bed, curtained and