ak, and wicked--your love has taught me that."

"It was an error that sprang from pride," he said, gently; "there is
nothing to part us."

"You have not heard all. Vane, I knew Captain Langton to be a thief--to
be a man who would not scruple at murder if need required. I knew that
all the love he could ever give to any one he had given to me, yet
I----"

She paused, and the sad face raised humbly to his grew crimson with a
burning blush.

"Oh, Vane, how can I tell you the shameful truth? Knowing what he was,
knowing that he was going to marry Lady Darrell, I yet withheld the
truth. That was my revenge. I knew he was a thief, a cruel, wicked
slanderer, a thoroughly bad man, yet, when one word from me would have
saved her from accepting his proposal, I, for my vengeance sake, refused
to speak that word."

Her voice died away in a low whisper; the very sound of her words seemed
to frighten her. Vane St. Lawrence's face grew pale and stern.

"It was unworthy of you, Pauline," he said, unhesitatingly. "It was a
cruel revenge."

"I know it," she admitted. "No words can add to the keen sense of my
dishonor."

"Tell me how it was," he said, more gently.

"I think," continued Pauline, "that she had always liked Captain
Langton. I remember that I used to think so before she married my uncle.
But she had noticed my contempt for him. It shook her faith in him, and
made her doubt him. She came to me one day, Vane, with that doubt in her
face and in her words. She asked me to tell her if I knew anything
against him--if there was any reason why she should doubt him. She asked
me then, before she allowed herself to love him; one word from me then
would have saved her, and that word, for my vengeance sake, I would not
speak."

"It should have been spoken," observed Sir Vane, gravely.

"I know it. Captain Langton has no honor, no conscience. He does not
even like Lady Darrell; he will marry her solely that he may have
Darrell Court. He will afterward maltreat her, and hold her life as
nothing; he will squander the Darrell property. Vane, as truly as the
bright heaven shines above me, I believe him to have no redeeming
quality."

There was silence for some minutes, and then Sir Vane asked:

"Tell me, Pauline--do you think that Lady Darrell would marry him if she
knew what you have just told me?"

"I am sure she would not. She is very worldly, and only lives what one
may call a life of appearances; she would not marry hi