nd my position before we part. This
morning I was as firmly resolved as ever to risk everything, to
renounce the aid of my relatives if it must be and face poverty for the
sake of art. Now all is changed. I shall accept my step-father's offer,
and all its results becoming, if it can't be helped, a mere man of
business. I do this because of my sacred duties to _you_. As an artist,
there's no telling how long it might be before I could ask you again to
be my wife; as a man of business, I may soon be in a position to do so.
Don't interrupt me, I entreat! It is no matter to me if you repulse me
now, in your anger. I consider the engagement as still existing between
us, and, such being the ease, it is plainly my duty to take such steps
as will enable me to offer you a home. By remaining an artist, I should
satisfy one part of my conscience, but at the expense of all my better
feelings; it might even be supposed--though, I trust, not by you--that
I made my helplessness an excuse for forgetting you when most you
needed kindness. I shall go back to England, and devote myself with
energy to the new task, however repulsive it may prove. Whether you
think of me or not, I do it for your sake; you cannot rob me of that
satisfaction. Some day I shall again stand before you, and ask you for
what you once promised. If then you refuse--well, I must bear the loss
of all my hopes."

"You may direct your life as you choose," Madeline replied scornfully,
"but you will please to understand that I give you no encouragement to
hope anything from me. I almost believe you capable of saying, some
day, that you took this step because I urged you to it. I have no
interest whatever in your future; our paths are separate. Let this be
the end of it."

But it was very far from the end of it. When the carriage stopped at
Mrs. Gluck's, mutual reproaches were at their height.

"You shall not leave me yet, Madeline," said Clifford, as he alighted.
"Come to the other side of the road, and let us walk along for a few
minutes. You shall not go in, if I have to hold you by force."

Madeline yielded, and in the light of the moon they walked side by
side, continuing their dialogue.

"You are heartless! You have played with me from the first."

"If so, I only treated you as you thought to treat me."

"That you can attribute such baseness to me proves how incapable you
are of distinguishing between truth and falsehood. How wretchedly I
have been deceived i