woman to whom I am
pledged. You and I must not meet again. I will crush this madness to
death. I think I have been delirious ever since that day I saw you
first, Magdalen. My brain is clearer now. I see my duty and I mean to
do it at any cost. I dare not trust myself to say more. Magdalen, I
have much for which to ask your forgiveness."

"There is nothing to forgive," she said steadily. "I have been as much
to blame as you. If I had been as resolute as I ought to have been--if
I had sent you away the second time as I did the first--this would not
have come to pass. I have been weak too, and I deserve to atone for my
weakness by suffering. There is only one path open to us. Esterbrook,
good-bye." Her voice quivered with an uncontrollable spasm of pain,
but the misty, mournful eyes did not swerve from his. The man stepped
forward and caught her in his arms.

"Magdalen, good-bye, my darling. Kiss me once--only once--before I
go."

She loosened his arms and stepped back proudly.

"No! No man kisses my lips unless he is to be my husband. Good-bye,
dear."

He bowed his head silently and went away, looking back not once, else
he might have seen her kneeling on the damp sand weeping noiselessly
and passionately.

* * * * *

Marian Lesley looked at his pale, determined face the next evening and
read it like an open book.

She had grown paler herself; there were purple shadows under the sweet
violet eyes that might have hinted of her own sleepless nights.

She greeted him calmly, holding out a steady, white hand of welcome.
She saw the traces of the struggle through which he had passed and
knew that he had come off victor.

The knowledge made her task a little harder. It would have been easier
to let slip the straining cable than to cast it from her when it lay
unresistingly in her hand.

For an instant her heart thrilled with an unutterably sweet hope.
Might he not forget in time? Need she snap in twain the weakened bond
between them after all? Perhaps she might win back her lost sceptre,
yet if--

Womanly pride throttled the struggling hope. No divided allegiance, no
hollow semblance of queenship for her!

Her opportunity came when Esterbrook asked with grave earnestness if
their marriage might not be hastened a little--could he not have his
bride in August? For a fleeting second Marian closed her eyes and the
slender hands, lying among the laces in her lap, clasped each other