agree to join Latimer
Berkeley's expedition at once--the letter came by the early post. I
wanted to get right away and try to forget what I had done--and since
you had expressed your will, I just left you to stand by it." He leaned
upon the mantelpiece now and buried his face in his hands.

"Oh, how wrong I was! Because you were so young I should have known that
you could not judge--and perhaps acted hastily in that sort of reaction
which always comes to one after passion--and I should have followed you
and brought you back."

His tones shook with anguish now. "Well, I am punished--and so all that
is left for us to do is to say good-bye, my dear, and let us each go our
ways. You, at least, are not suffering as I am--because you do not
care."

A little sob came in Sabine's throat, and she could not reply. She could
only take in the splendor of his figure and his grace as he leaned there
with dark bent head. And so, in a silence that seemed to throb and
thrill, they stood near together for a few moments with hearts at
breaking point.

Then he controlled himself; he must go at once or he could no longer
answer for what he might do. She looked so sweet and sorrowful standing
close to his side, her violet eyes lowered so that their long lashes
made a shadow upon her dimpled cheek.

Intense magnetic attraction drew them nearer and nearer.

"Sabine!" he cried at last, hoarsely, as though the words were torn from
his tortured heart. "There is something about you which tells me that
you do not love Henry--that he has never made you feel--as I once made
you feel, and could make you feel again." He stretched out his arms in
pain. "The temptation is frightful--terrible--just to kiss you once
more--Darling--Oh! I cannot bear it. I must go!" and he took a step away
from her.

But _the Moment_ for Sabine had come; she could resist its force no
more, every nerve in her whole body was quivering--every unknown, though
half-guessed emotion was stirring her soul. Her whole being seemed to be
convulsed in one concentrated desire. The reality had materialized the
echoes she had often dimly felt from that night of long ago.

The wild passion which she had feared, and only that very evening had
repudiated as being an impossible experience for her, had now overtaken
her, and she could struggle no more.

"Michael!" she whispered breathlessly, and held out her arms.

With a cry of joy he clasped her to him in a fierce ecstasy. All th