this
conquered. He felt the magnitude of Sabina's sacrifice and his
obligation to a love so absolute. In this spirit he remained for a time,
during which their relations were of the closest. They spoke of
marriage; they even appointed the day on which the announcement of their
betrothal should be made. And though he had gone thus far at her
entreaty, always recognising when with her the reasonableness of her
wish, after she was gone, the cross seas of his own character, created a
different impression and swept the pattern of Sabina's will away.

For a time the intrigue of meeting her, the planning and the plotting
amused him. He imagined the world was blind and that none knew, or
guessed, the truth. But Bridetown, having eyes as many and sharp as any
other hamlet, had long been familiar with the facts. The transparent
veil of their imagined secrecy was already rent, though the lovers did
not guess it.

Then Raymond's chivalry wore thinner. Ruling passions, obscured for a
season by the tremendous experience of his first love and its success,
began by slow degrees to rise again, solid and challenging, through the
rosy clouds. His love, while he shouted to himself that it increased
rather than diminished, none the less assumed a change of colour and
contour. The bright vapours still shone and Sabina could always kindle
ineffable glow to the fabric; but she away, they shrank a little and
grew less radiant. The truth of himself and his ambitions showed
through. At such times he dinned on the ears of his heart that Sabina
was his life. At other times when the fading fire astonished him by
waking a shiver, he blamed fate, told himself that but for the lack of
means, he would make a perfect home for Sabina; worship and cherish her;
fill her life with happiness; pander to her every whim; devote a large
portion of his own time to her; do all that wit and love could devise
for her pleasure--all but one thing.

He did not want to marry her. With that deed demanding to be done, the
necessity for it began to be questioned sharply. He was not a marrying
man and, in any case, too young to commit himself and his prospects to
such a course. He assured himself that he had never contemplated
immediate marriage; he had never suggested it to Sabina. She herself had
not suggested it; for what advantage could be gained by such a step?
While a thousand disasters might spring therefrom, not the least being a
quarrel with his brother, there wa