w that sooner or later you would try to elude
me; and I have watched night and day to prevent that. Correct me if I
am wrong; my heart tells me that you are going up to town to avoid me,
and are then going further to be where I cannot find you. Am I
correct?"

"Yes, quite," she replied gravely. "I did not know that I was so weak.
I know it now, and, as I have told you, we must never meet again."

"I will not argue with you," he said, "only tell you once more that you
take a woman's view of imaginary danger. I take that of a man
determined to sacrifice life sooner than lose sight of you again--a poor
stake, perhaps, for without you it is a worthless thing, but it is all I
have."

She sighed and he saw that her face grew harder, as she avoided his gaze
and sat looking out of the window in silence.

"Do I understand you," she said at last, "that you mean to follow me?"

"To the world's end," he cried.

"Is his manly, to force yourself upon a helpless woman?"

"No; it is despicable perhaps, but I am lost now to reason. You are
everything to me; to be near you is to live--to lose sight of you is to
die. You are my fate, and you draw me to your side."

"To your ruin, perhaps to your death," she said wildly. "You must have
grasped what kind of men my relatives are. You must have seen what risk
you run."

"Yes, I have seen and thought out all this, but it is as nothing to your
love."

"And would you see me suffer through your folly and imprudence?"

"I would give anything to spare you suffering."

"Then leave me before my agony becomes too great to bear."

"I--can--not!" he cried. "Drive me from you, and when I find that all
hope is gone, then I will seek for rest."

"What!" she cried.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I am no boasting boy," he said sadly. "Everything to make life worth
living will be gone, and an easy painless death beckoning me on. I am a
doctor, I have but to go home, and there it is, to my hand."

She said nothing, but sank back in the corner of the carriage, covering
her face with her hands; and he saw that her breast was heaving with the
painful sobs struggling for exit.

He bent over towards her, and touched her arm.

"Marion," he whispered.

She started from him as if she had been stung, and her eyes flashed as
her hands fell into her lap.

"Don't touch me!" she said wildly. "You are mad."

The train sped on rapidly, taking them nearer and nearer to their fate,
as bo