inn in Edinburgh?"

"Never. Our visions of each other have left us. Can you tell why?"

If we had continued to speak on this subject, we must surely have
recognized each other. But the subject dropped. Instead of answering her
question, I drew her nearer to me--I returned to the forbidden subject
of my love.

"Look at me," I pleaded, "and tell me the truth. Can you see me, can you
hear me, and do you feel no answering sympathy in your own heart? Do you
really care nothing for me? Have you never once thought of me in all the
time that has passed since we last met?"

I spoke as I felt--fervently, passionately. She made a last effort to
repel me, and yielded even as she made it. Her hand closed on mine,
a low sigh fluttered on her lips. She answered with a sudden
self-abandonment; she recklessly cast herself loose from the restraints
which had held her up to this time.

"I think of you perpetually," she said. "I was thinking of you at the
opera last night. My heart leaped in me when I heard your voice in the
street."

"You love me!" I whispered.

"Love you!" she repeated. "My whole heart goes out to you in spite of
myself. Degraded as I am, unworthy as I am--knowing as I do that nothing
can ever come of it--I love you! I love you!"

She threw her arms round my neck, and held me to her with all her
strength. The moment after, she dropped on her knees. "Oh, don't tempt
me!" she murmured. "Be merciful--and leave me."

I was beside myself. I spoke as recklessly to her as she had spoken to
me.

"Prove that you love me," I said. "Let me rescue you from the
degradation of living with that man. Leave him at once and forever.
Leave him, and come with me to a future that is worthy of you--your
future as my wife."

"Never!" she answered, crouching low at my feet.

"Why not? What obstacle is there?"

"I can't tell you--I daren't tell you."

"Will you write it?"

"No, I can't even write it--to _you_. Go, I implore you, before Van
Brandt comes back. Go, if you love me and pity me."

She had roused my jealousy. I positively refused to leave her.

"I insist on knowing what binds you to that man," I said. "Let him come
back! If _you_ won't answer my question, I will put it to _him_."

She looked at me wildly, with a cry of terror. She saw my resolution in
my face.

"Don't frighten me," she said. "Let me think."

She reflected for a moment. Her eyes brightened, as if some new way out
of the difficulty had occurre