t without hearing any sound that might
herald the approach of a visitor; then resumed her wild and purposeless
walk, until the clock struck the quarter, when she suddenly threw herself
down in the chair, muttering:

"Fifteen minutes late! I do not want to see him! But since he is to come,
I wish he had come, and this was all over."

Another quarter of an hour passed, and her visitor had not arrived.

Again in her anxiety she arose and began to walk the floor and to look
out occasionally at a window which commanded the approach to the house.

No one, however, was in sight.

She sat down again, muttering:

"This seems an intentional affront, an insult. He treats me with no
consideration. Well, perhaps I deserve none. Oh! I wish I knew to whom my
duty is due! I wish I had some one of whom I dared to ask counsel! I
certainly did wed Waldemar. I certainly did believe him to be my lawful
husband, and _then_ my duty was clearly due to him. But my parents
came and tore me away from him, and told me that my marriage was not
lawful, and that Waldemar de Volaski was not my husband. Then they took
me to Paris, and told me that I must forget the very existence of my
lover. Still, I should never have dreamed of another marriage while
I thought Waldemar lived; for I loved him with all my heart, and only
wished to live until I should be of an age to contract a legal marriage
with him, with whom I had already made a sacramental one. But they told
me that Waldemar was _dead_, slain by the hand of my father! and
they bade me keep the secret of my first marriage, and to contract a
second one with the Duke of Hereward! Oh, if I had but known that
Waldemar still lived, the tortures of the Inquisition should not have
forced me into this second marriage! But believing Waldemar to be dead,
I suffered myself to be persecuted, worried and _weakened_ into this
marriage! Oh! that I had been strong enough to bear the miseries of my
home; to resist the forces brought to bear against me! Oh, that I had
been brave enough to tell the whole truth of my marriage with Waldemar de
Volaski to the Duke of Hereward before he had committed his honor to my
keeping by making me his wife! That course would have saved me then with
less of suffering than I have to bear now. But I weakly permitted myself
to be forced, with this secret on my conscience, into a marriage with
the Duke of Hereward. And now I dare not tell him the truth! And now my
first husband has