driven away
Radford Leicester because of your pride, had afterwards married him--him
who was the husband of another woman, and the most corrupt blackguard
who ever walked God's earth.

"Yes, yes, it was mean enough, paltry enough, but it was cruel too, and
I gloated over my plan, for the devil possessed me. I had risen again
from the dead to wreak my vengeance.

"Well, you remember last night? You promised to be my wife. I held you
in my arms, I kissed you, you kissed me. For a moment I ceased to hate;
I loved again, and the love was heaven. But when I left you, I vowed
that I would not turn aside from the path I had marked out. This morning
I could not come to you, I wanted to go away on the hills alone, I
wanted to visit the scenes in which I had made my vows years ago.

"I went into a farmhouse where a simple and pure farmer's dame talked to
me in the old days. To-day she talked to me again, and she made me feel
that I was a fool. She made me realise that if I dragged you into hell,
I should go into a deeper hell myself. She made me realise that there
was a God in the world other than I knew of. Still I determined to go on
as I had begun."

He stopped again, as if not knowing how to proceed with his story; then
he told her of his walk across the moors, and of that wondrous
experience which was too deep for words, of how God had come to him and
had given him a new heart.

"Ever since last night I have known that I love you," he said; "ay, I
knew that I loved you with a love too deep for words, but I would not
confess it to myself until to-day. But I knew, too, that it was too
late, because if I were unworthy of you years ago, I am a thousand times
less worthy now. Then God told me to tell you what I have told you."

Leicester rose to his feet.

"Now I have told you--what I came to tell you," he said. "It was right
that you should know, and I have told you. That is all, I think; so I
will go. I do not ask you to forgive me--I do not, cannot expect that.
Good-night."

He hesitated a second as though he expected her to speak, but not a word
escaped her lips. He thought the look in her eyes hard and repellent. As
he moved towards the door he took a last look at her, but she made no
sign, nor spoke a word.

"Good-night, good-bye," he said, and was gone.

She heard him go into the hall, and open the front door; afterwards the
sound of his footsteps on the drive reached her; but she did not move.
The man's reve