ross, Louis, it is because I love you so much that I want to
stay, don't send me away, O Louis, don't."

"Now, Natalie, you are enough to provoke a saint," he said, angrily,
"cross, indeed, no wonder if I am, don't let me hear another word about
it, you go to-morrow."

Natalie saw that any more opposition would inevitably cause one of those
fierce bursts of passion of which she ever stood in mortal dread; she
glanced at his darkened countenance and was silent, but her heart was
heavy.

"Come, we will take a turn on the lawn the moon is so bright," he said.
They walked in the moonlight, those two, husband and wife not three
years, but the happy brightness had faded out of her face, and the girl
not twenty walked by his side with a weary step, as if life were almost
a burden. She resolutely checked her tears, and silently paced the lawn,
while her thoughts wandered back to the beautiful home in the south of
France, where she first met the man who had proved so different a
partner to what, in her love and trust, she had fondly imagined, and
then she wished so fervently that she might even yet be to him all that
she had hoped. But he did not want her with him, he would be glad when
she was away, oh, he did not love her, or he would not thus cruelly
insist upon her going. She had it in her heart even yet to throw herself
into his arms and entreat him to let her stay, but she felt that it
would be useless, besides she dare not offer further resistance to his
will. She looked up into his face and knew she dare not.

His eyes were fixed upon her, "why Natalie," he said, laughing, "anyone
would think I was an ogre to see your countenance." But it was not a
pleasant laugh. Then the hardest thought that she ever had towards him,
came to her mind, and she thought that he was acting very like one.
Louis paused as they were about to enter the house saying, "You will not
worry me any more, if you do it will be useless and only make me harsh,"
his manner was stern, determined and chilling in the extreme. Natalie
shivered, "I will go," she replied in a choking voice, then flew up the
stairs and alone in the dark gave vent to the grief that was breaking
her heart. "Little fool," murmured Louis between his firmly closed
teeth, "what a plague she is."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"O Isabel, it is nearly time for the train to pass, do let us go and
watch for it," said Rose, and they went accordingly. "Here it comes,
here it comes," she