ar. Then, after a pause, she said, "I hope it will
have no evil influence on me."

"I hope not--I hope not. But you are beyond such influences. It seems
to me, if I may say so, that you are beyond all influences."

"Yes; as a fool is," she said, laughing.

"No; but as a rock is. I will not say as ice, for ice will always
melt."

"And do I never melt, Mr. Bertram? Has that which has made you so
unhappy not moved me? Do you think that I can love Caroline as I do,
and not grieve, and weep, and groan in the spirit? I do grieve; I
have wept for it. I am not stone."

And in this also there had been some craft. She had been as it were
forced to guard the thoughts of her own heart; and had, therefore,
turned the river of the conversation right through the heart of her
companion.

"For whom do you weep? for which of us do you weep?" he asked.

"For both; that, having so much to enjoy, you should between you have
thrown it all away."

"She will be happy. That at any rate is a consolation to me. Though
you will hardly believe that."

"I hope she will. I hope she will. But, oh! Mr. Bertram, it is so
fearful a risk. What--what if she should not be? What if she shall
find, when the time will be too late for finding anything--what if
she shall then find that she cannot love him?"

"Love him!" said the other with a sneer. "You do not know her. What
need is there for love?"

"Ah! do not be harsh to her; do not you be harsh to her."

"Harsh, no; I will not be harsh to her. I will be all kindness. And
being kind, I ask what need is there for love? Looking at it in any
light, of course she cannot love him."

"Cannot love him! why not?"

"How is it possible? Had she loved me, could she have shaken off one
lover and taken up another in two months? And if she never loved me;
if for three years she could go on, never loving me--then what reason
is there to think she should want such excitement now?"

"But you--could you love her, and yet cast her from you?"

"Yes; I could do it. I did do it--and were it to do again, it should
be done again. I did love her. If I know what love is, if I can at
all understand it, I did love her with all my heart. And yet--I will
not say I cast her off; it would be unmanly as well as false; but I
let her go."

"Ah! you did more than that, Mr. Bertram."

"I gave her back her troth; and she accepted it;--as it was her duty
to do, seeing that her wishes were then changed. I did no more than
t