for it was something she could not bring herself to speak out;
but words were unneeded between them, for his eyes sought hers
hungrily, and they stood at gaze with each other for a space before
Danvers cried:

"And to think it's not you--to think it's not you!" he repeated, with a
moan like an animal in pain. "God!" he went on in his raving, "I can
not and will not stand it longer! Why is a love like this given to a
man? Do we choose? Have I had any choice in the matter? Whoever it was
who designed the peculiar hell of my own nature can take the
consequences of it. Speak to me, Nancy!" he cried; "speak to me! Do not
stand there looking at me like a statue! For God's sake, speak--for it
seems as though I should kill you and myself, and so make an end."

His grief had so worked upon him by this time that Nancy was beside
herself with fear for him, although she spoke quietly and in as natural
a voice as she could summon.

"I'll go with you, Dandie," she said; "I'll go with you. Wait for me,"
reentering her room; "just wait for me!"

It took her but a moment to get some stout walking-boots, a dark skirt,
and the scarlet Connemara cloak which she had worn on many of their
walks together, and pulling the hood of it over her head, she stepped
softly back into the hallway.

"I am ready," she said, slipping her hand into his; "I am ready. Let us
go."

There was no further word spoken between them. In silence they walked,
hand in hand, along the frozen passage and down the twisting stairs,
closing the house door noiselessly behind them. Outside it was very
dark, save in the far east, where there was a rim of white showing in
the sky like a line on a slate. The cold was biting, and a wind which
had not reached the ground blew through the tree-tops with a rushing
sound and sent a scurry of leaves before them on their path. Danvers
had prepared himself by a lantern, and there seemed something
significant of the business in hand in his determination to leave it
behind; it was in the blackness of midnight, with a silent country
stretching away from them in every direction and the stillness of the
dead, that the two walked the narrow path and turned into the lane
which led by a cut over the rise toward the Dumfries road. At the
coming out of the close-way a chill wind struck them, and Nancy, taken
suddenly from the warmth of bed, drew back and shivered, at which
Danvers put his arm around her, throwing part of his cape over her