s, made him wince as
from a stab. He seemed to hesitate as if estimating his strength. Dare
he trust himself? It would make the task infinitely harder to have her
near him, to feel the touch of her hands, the pressure of her body. But
he would save her pain. He would help her through this hour of agony.
How great it was he could guess by his own. He led her to a sofa, sat
down beside her, and took her in his arms. With a long, shuddering sigh,
she let herself sink down, with muscles relaxed and eyes closed.

"Now go on, dear," she whispered.

"Poor girl! Poor girl!" said Barney, "we have made a great mistake, you
and I. I was not made for you nor you for me."

"Why not?" she whispered.

"Listen to me, darling. Do I love you?"

"Yes," she answered softly.

"With all my heart and soul?"

"Yes, dear," she answered again.

"Better than my own life?"

"Yes, Barney. Oh, yes," she replied with a little sob in her voice.

"Now we will speak simple truth to each other," said Barney in a tone
solemn as if in prayer, "the truth as in God's sight."

She hesitated. "Oh, Barney!" she cried piteously, "must I say all the
truth?"

"We must, darling. You promise?"

"Oh-h-h! Yes, I promise." She flung her arms upward about his neck. "I
know what you will ask."

"Listen to me, darling," he said again, taking down her arms, "this is
what I would say. You have marked out your life. You will follow your
great ambition. Your glorious voice calls you and you feel you must go.
You love me and you would be my wife, make my home, mother my children
if God should send them to us; but both these things you cannot do, and
meantime you have chosen your great career. Is not this true?"

"I can't give you up, Barney!" she moaned.

To neither of them did it occur as an alternative that Barney should
give up his life's work to accompany her in the path she had marked.
Equally to both this would have seemed unworthy of him.

"Is not this true, Iola?" Barney's voice, in spite of him, grew a little
stern. And though she knew it was at the cost of life she could not deny
it.

"God gave me the voice, Barney," she whispered.

"Yes, darling. And I would not hinder you nor turn you from your great
art. So it is better that there should be no bond between us." He paused
a moment as if to gather his strength together for a supreme effort.
"Iola, when you were a girl I bound you to me. Now you are a woman, I
set you free. I love you, but yo