. When
I asked him if he deserved to be forgiven, he made the humblest of all
replies--he sighed and said nothing.

"If I did my duty to my sister," I reminded him, "I should refuse to
forgive you, and send you back to Eunice."

"Your father's language and your father's conduct," he answered, "have
released me from that entanglement. I can never go back to Eunice. If
you refuse to forgive me, neither you nor she will see anything more of
Philip Dunboyne; I promise you that. Are you satisfied now?"

After holding out against him resolutely, I felt myself beginning to
yield. When a man has once taken their fancy, what helplessly weak
creatures women are! I saw through his vacillating weakness--and yet
I trusted him, with both eyes open. My looking-glass is opposite to me
while I write. It shows me a contemptible Helena. I lied, and said I was
satisfied--to please _him_.

"Am I forgiven?" he asked.

It is absurd to put it on record. Of course, I forgave him. What a good
Christian I am, after all!

He took my willing hand. "My lovely darling," he said, "our marriage
rests with you. Whether your father approves of it or not, say the word;
claim me, and I am yours for life."

I must have been infatuated by his voice and his look; my heart must
have been burning under the pressure of his hand on mine. Was it my
modesty or my self-control that deserted me? I let him take me in his
arms. Again, and again, and again I kissed him. We were deaf to what we
ought to have heard; we were blind to what we ought to have seen. Before
we were conscious of a movement among the trees, we were discovered.
My sister flew at me like a wild animal. Her furious hands fastened
themselves on my throat. Philip started to his feet. When he touched
her, in the act of forcing her back from me, Eunice's raging strength
became utter weakness in an instant. Her arms fell helpless at her
sides--her head drooped--she looked at him in silence which was
dreadful, at such a moment as that. He shrank from the unendurable
reproach in those tearless eyes. Meanly, he turned away from her.
Meanly, I followed him. Looking back for an instant, I saw her step
forward; perhaps to stop him, perhaps to speak to him. The effort was
too much for her strength; she staggered back against the trunk of a
tree. Like strangers, walking separate one from the other, we left her
to her companion--the hideous traitress who was my enemy and her friend.

CHAPTER XXIX. HE