and seizing the hem of his coat pressed it to her lips, and then,
before he could catch her, sprang away, and stood with one arm extended
toward him, the palm turned outward, warning him not to touch her. Her
eyes were marvellously softened with the tears that suffused them, and
she said--

"I thank you, Henry. You are very good. I did not think any man could be
so good. Now I remember, you always were very good to me. It will make
the laudanum taste much sweeter. No! no! don't! Pity my shame. Spare me
that! Oh, don't!"

But he was stronger than she, and kissed her. It was the second time he
had ever done it. Her eyes flashed angrily, but that was instantly past,
and she fell upon a chair crying as if her heart would break, her hands
dropping nervously by her sides; for this was that miserable, desolate
sorrow which does not care to hide its flowing tears and wrung face.

"Oh, you might have spared me that! O God! was it not hard enough
before?" she sobbed.

In his loving stupidity, thinking to reassure her, he had wounded the
pride of shame, the last retreat of self-respect, that cruellest hurt of
all. There was a long silence. She seemed to have forgotten that he was
there. Looking down upon her as she sat desolate, degraded, hopeless
before him, not caring to cover her face, his heart swelled till it
seemed as if it would burst, with such a sense of piteous loyalty and
sublimed devotion as a faithful subject in the brave old times might have
felt towards his queen whom he has found in exile, rags, and penury.
Deserted by gods and men she might be, but his queen for ever she was,
whose feet he was honoured to kiss. But what a gulf between feeling this
and making her understand his feeling!

At length, when her sobs had ceased, he said, quietly--

"Forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"It's all the same. It's no matter," she answered, listlessly, wiping her
eyes with her hand. "I wish you would go away, though, and leave me
alone. What do you want with me?"

"I want what I have always wanted: I want you for my wife."

She looked at him with stupid amazement, as if the real meaning of this
already once declared desire had only just distinctly reached her mind,
or as if the effect of its first announcement had been quite effaced by
the succeeding outburst.

"Why, I thought you knew! You can't have heard--about me," she said.

"I have heard, I know all," he exclaimed, taking a step forward and
s