most cruel wrong, and I have no excuse
to offer--nothing but my foolish youth, my mad folly, my unmanly
weakness. I have known it ever since I married. You are my only love; I
have never had another. Ah, my darling, forgive me. If I have ruined
your life, I have doubly ruined my own."

She raised her beautiful, colorless face to his.

"Lance," she said, gently, "what a prophecy that song held for us. And
the running water--how true a foreboding it always murmured:

"'The vows are all forgotten,
The ring asunder broken.'

How true and how cruel. I hear the song and I hear the murmur of the
water in my dreams."

"So do I," he replied, sadly. "My darling, I wish we never left the
mill-stream. I would to Heaven we had died under the running water
together."

"So do I," she said, "but we are living, not dead, and life holds duties
just as death holds relief. We must remember much harm has been done--we
need not do more."

"Say that you will forgive me, Leone, and then I do not care what
happens. I will do anything you tell me. I will humble myself in every
way. I will do anything you can desire if you will only forgive me. Do,
for Heaven's sake. I am so utterly wretched that I believe if you refuse
to say one word of pardon to me I shall go mad or kill myself."

There was a long struggle in her mind. Could she forgive the injury
which seemed greater than man had ever inflicted on woman? She was very
proud, and her pride was all in arms. How could she pardon a traitor?
She had loved him better than her life, and with the first sight of his
handsome, beloved face all the glamour of her love was over her again.

How could she forgive him? Yet the proud figure was bent so humbly
before her, the proud head so low.

"What am I to say?" she cried. "I was a good and innocent girl--now it
seems to me that the evil spirits of passion and unrest have taken
possession of me. What am I to say or to do? Heaven help and teach me."

"Forgive me," he repeated. "Your refusal will send me away a madman,
ready for any reckless action. Your consent will humble me, but it will
make me happier. Oh, my darling, forgive me."

"Suppose that harm follows my forgiveness--we are better enemies than
friends, Lord Chandos."

"We will never be enemies, and no harm can come except that I shall be
happier for it. Say you will forgive me, Leone. See, I ask your pardon
on my knees. For Heaven's sake, for my great love's sake, say you