in with swift steps and
grasped Unorna's arm fiercely.

"Tell me more still--this dream has lasted long--you are man and wife!"

"We might have been. He would still have thought me you, for months
and years. He would have had me take from his finger that ring you put
there. I tried--I tell you the whole truth--but I could not. I saw you
there beside me and you held my hand. I broke away and left him."

"Left him of your free will?"

"I could not lie again. It was too much. He would have broken a promise
if I had stayed. I love him--so I left him."

"Is all this true?"

"Every word."

"Swear it to me."

"How can I? By what shall I swear to you? Heaven itself would laugh at
any oath of mine. With my life I will answer for every word. With my
soul--no--it is not mine to answer with. Will you have my life? My last
breath shall tell you that I tell the truth. The dying do not lie."

"You tell me that you love that man. You tell me that you made him think
in dreams that he loved you. You tell me that you might be man and wife.
And you ask me to believe that you turned back from such happiness
as would make an angel sin? If you had done this--but it is not
possible--no woman could! His words in your ear, and yet turn back? His
lips on yours, and leave him? Who could do that?"

"One who loves him."

"What made you do it?"

"Love."

"No--fear--nothing else----"

"Fear? And what have I to fear? My body is beyond the fear of death, as
my soul is beyond the hope of life. If it were to be done again I should
be weak. I know I should. If you could know half of what the doing cost!
But let that alone. I did it, and he is waiting for you. Will you come?"

"If I only knew it to be true----"

"How hard you make it. Yet, it was hard enough."

Beatrice touched her arm, more gently than before, and gazed into her
eyes.

"If I could believe it all I would not make it hard. I would forgive
you--and you would deserve better than that, better than anything that
is mine to give."

"I deserve nothing and ask nothing. If you will come, you will see, and,
seeing, you will believe. And if you then forgive--well then, you will
have done far more than I could do."

"I would forgive you freely----"

"Are you afraid to go with me?"

"No. I am afraid of something worse. You have put something here--a
hope----"

"A hope? Then you believe. There is no hope without a little belief in
it. Will you come?"

"To him?"

"To hi