g clasp, while she seemed so
completely unstrung by some inward emotion that Lady Cameron was
alarmed.

"My dear child, this will never do," she said, regarding her anxiously,
"you must not allow yourself to become so excited, and I blame myself
for directing our conversation into such a serious channel. I must run
away at once and leave you to get calm. Of course, my love, I shall
always trust you, while you already have such a firm hold upon my heart
that I do not believe I could cease to love you if I would. There, you
shall not talk any more," as Violet opened her lips as if to speak;
"good-night, pleasant dreams, and a refreshing slumber. This," with a
light laugh, "is the last kiss I shall ever give Violet Huntington; when
next my lips touch yours you will be somebody's dear wife."

With a lingering caress the beautiful woman released her from her arms,
and then stole softly from the room, thinking what a sweet, lovable wife
Vane would have on the morrow.

But if she could have seen Violet as she lay there on her couch after
she had gone, she would have marveled more than she had done over her
previous excitement.

She clasped her hands across her eyes as if to shut out some dreadful
vision, and seemed to cower and shrink as if some one was smiting her
with a stinging lash.

"Oh, what have I done!" she moaned. "A Christian, and on the point of
perjuring myself before God's altar! A Christian, and weakly yielding to
what I know would be a sin of deepest dye! A Christian, and consenting
to take the poison of my wretchedness--of a heart that is filled with a
hopeless love for another--into a good man's life and home! No--a
thousand times no! I have been blind, wicked, reckless. Vane Cameron is
too good a man to have his life hampered and ruined thus, and I honor
him far too much to do him such wrong, now that I see it in its true
light. Oh, if he were but my brother, with his noble principles, his
strong, true heart and boundless sympathy, I could stand by him, help
him to carry out the good that he has planned, and devote my whole life
to him; but as his wife--never!" and she broke into a perfect tempest of
tears and sobs as she arrived at this crisis.

Daylight faded; the last crimson flush died out of the western sky;
darkness settled upon the mountain-tops that overlooked the beautiful
bay, and gradually wrapping itself about them like a mantle, finally
dropped like a pall upon the gay watering-place and t