him--confound him!--before he shall have a hair of your
head!"

"Oh, Le, hush! hush! You don't know! You mistake! Le, I must marry him! Do
you understand? I must, I say!" wailed Odalite, wringing her hands.

"And you shall not, I say, because you do not want to. Your promise to him
goes for nothing beside my claims," said the youth, in a tone of gay
defiance.

"But, Le! Le! I--I--I want to marry him! I do indeed!" she cried, again
bursting into tears and weeping violently.

He drew back from her in amazement, staring at her, while she repeated and
reiterated her words, that she really wished to marry Col. Anglesea.

"I cannot comprehend you at all, Odalite. My heart aches for your evident
suffering; but I cannot comprehend it. I almost fear that you are not
quite sane! If you really please yourself in marrying Anglesea--as you
insist that you do--why should you be so miserable over it all?"

"Oh, Le! as I told you before, it is because--because I feel that I am
acting so basely by you!--oh, my dear! the thought almost maddens me!" she
sobbed.

"And is it indeed for me that the gentle heart suffers so much?"
questioned Le, utterly subdued by her sorrow and humility. "Do not cry,
Odalite. I was cruel, and brutal, and most unmanly to blame you so much a
while ago. I am sorry and ashamed of having done so, Odalite. I have no
excuse to offer, unless it is that the suddenness and the bitterness of my
disappointment threw me off my balance. Forgive me, Odalite. And do not
spend another thought or shed another tear over me. Poor, little, tender
Odalite! Do not mind me, little one! I--I--I shall get over this when I
feel sure that you are happy. Do not grieve so! I shall never blame you
any more, dear! I mourn that I ever could have been such a wretch as to
blame you, for you could not help what has happened. I was away at the
antipodes--had been there for years. He was in the house with you for
three months. And--and--I have noticed--even I--what a fascination some of
these handsome, brilliant soldiers exercise over young girls! You were
fascinated, and your affections were won before you knew it. You did not
mean to be drawn away from me any more than the boat means to be sucked
into the whirlpool! You could not avert your fate any more than the boat
could. I do not condemn you, Odalite. And I shall always--always love--no!
I must not love another man's bride, even though he has stolen her from
me; but I will always ca