er voice broke, and he could hear the tears in it, and he
wildly kissed her hands. Then she went on:

"Oh, my dear lover, it is the same question now. _You cannot break your
word._ Nothing but misfortune could follow. It is a hard law, but I know
it is true, and it is fate. We put in action the force which brings all
that we receive, and we who have courage pay the price without
flinching, and, above and beyond all momentary pleasure or pain, we must
be true to ourselves."

"I cannot, I cannot!" he groaned in agony. "How can you condemn me to
such a fate?--tied to this woman whose every influence is degrading to
me; parted from you whom I adore--I would rather be dead. It is not
fair--not just, if you only knew!"

Then he continued wildly. "Ah, God--and it is all because I forgot the
meaning of your dear and sacred, pledge with me that I must always be
good and true! If I could suffer alone--my darling, my soul!--then I
would go without a word back to hell, if you sent me. But you,
too--think, Halcyone! Can you bear your life? You who are so young,
separated for evermore from love and me. Oh! my own, my own--"

Here he stopped his mad rush of words--her face was so white and
grave--and he let her draw herself from him, and put her hands upon his
shoulders, while her eyes, with tender stars of purity melting in their
depths, gazed into his.

"John," she said, "do not try to weaken me. All Nature, who is my
friend, and the night-winds and their voices, and that dear God Who
never deserts me, tell me that for no present good must we lower
ourselves now. Nothing can ever hurt me. Go back and do that which being
a gentleman entails upon you to do--and leave the rest to God. This is
the winter of our souls, but it will not last forever. The spring is at
hand, if you will only trust, and believe with me that first we on our
side must be ready to pay the price."

Then she bent forward and kissed him as an angel might have done, and,
without speaking more, rose and prepared to walk towards the stairway
which descended to the lower court.

He followed her, and she turned before she began to descend the steps,
while she pointed to the beautiful country.

"Look at the vines, all heavy with grapes," she said, "and the fields
shorn of their corn, and the olives shimmering in the sunset; and then,
dear lover, you will know that all things have their sequence, and our
time of joy will come. Ah! sweetheart, it is not farewell f