and
brings nothing worth waiting for in the future. Were I to have my will,
I would take the arm of the first officer returning to England and
remain there. I hate this country, so new, so crude, so democratic! I
should like to live where I could ride over the necks of common people.'

"A tory and an aristocrat! Another gulf between us. I looked at her in
horror, but, alas! the horror was strangely mixed with admiration. She
was such a burning embodiment of pride. Her peculiar beauty--the source
of which I have never to this day been able to fathom--lent itself so
readily to the expression of fury and disdain, that, recoil as I would
from her principles, I could not shut my eyes to the fascination of her
glance or the torturing charm that hid in the corners of her pouting
lips. She was a queen. Oh, yes, but the queen of some strange realm in a
distant oriental land, where right and wrong were only words, and the
sole end of beauty was delight, without reference to God or one's
fellows. I saw it all, I felt it all, yet I lingered. She was to be my
wife in three days, and the intoxication of this prospect was in my
blood and brain.

"'You will do so and so,' were her next words. 'You will give me what I
ask when you have won it. But I cannot wait for the winning; I want it
now. Do you know what I would do to get the wealth I was born to? I
would risk life! I would walk on burning plowshares! I would--'

"She stopped, and I saw the lines come out in her forehead. She was
thinking--thinking deeply. I felt the shadow of a great horror creeping
over me. I caught her impetuously in my arms. I kissed her passionately
to drive away the demons. I begged and implored her to forget her evil
thoughts, and be the woman I could love and cherish; and finally I
moved her. She shook herself free, but she also shook the shadow from
her brow. She even found a smile to bestow upon me; and was it a tear?
Could it have been a tear I saw for a moment glisten in her eye as she
turned half petulantly, half imperiously away? I have never known, but
the very suspicion filled my heart to overflowing, and the great sobs
rose in my breast; and--fool that I was--I was about to beg her pardon,
when she gave me one other look, and I merely faltered out:

"'Where will you find another love like mine, Marah? If you got your
gold, you would soon miss something which only comes with love. You
would be unhappy, and curse the day you left my arms. I am yo