th the angry restlessness of a
ruffled cat, muttering to herself:

"She shall not take him from me, even if he is her husband! I _will_ not
be outrivalled by another woman, even if she is his wife!"

Over and over again she ground these words through her teeth, or other
words of the same sort. Suddenly she passed out of the narrow passage
into the broad ball, where she noticed that the parlor door was ajar, a
light burning within the room, and the shadow of a man thrown across the
carpet. She stole to the door, peeped in, and saw Lyon Berners still
standing on the rug with his back to the smouldering fire, absorbed in
sombre thought.

She slipped in, and dropped her head upon his shoulder and sobbed.

Startled and very much annoyed, he gently tried to raise her head and
put her away.

But she only clung the closer, and sobbed the more.

"Rosa! don't! don't, child! Let us have no more of this! It is sinful
and dangerous! For your own sake, Rosa, retire to your room!" he gently
expostulated.

"Oh! you love me no longer! You love me no longer!" vehemently exclaimed
the siren. "That cruel woman has compelled you to forsake me! I told you
she would do it, and now she has done it."

"'That woman,' Rosa, is my beloved wife, entitled to my whole faith; yet
not even for her will I forsake you; but I will continue to care for
you, as a brother for a sister. But, Rosa, this must cease," he gravely
added.

"Oh, do not say that! do not! do not fling off the poor lonely heart
that you have once gathered to your own!" and she clung to him as
closely and wept as wildly as if she had been in earnest.

"Rosa! Rosa!" he whispered eagerly, and in great embarrassment, "my
child! be reasonable! Reflect! you have a husband!"

"Ah! name him not! He robbed and left me, and I hate him," she cried.

"And I have a dear and honored wife whose happiness I must guard. Thus
you see we can be nothing to each other but brother and sister. A
brother's love and care is all that I can offer you, or that you should
be willing to accept from me," he continued, as he gently smoothed her
fair hair.

"Then give me a brother's kiss," she sighed. "That is not much to ask,
and I have no one to kiss me now! So give me a brother's kiss, and let
me go!" she pleaded, plaintively.

He hesitated for a moment, and then bending over her, he said:

"It is the _first_, and for your own sake it must be the _last_, Rosa!"
he pressed his lips to hers.

It