rew her till she was pressed against him, and he held her hands in
his behind her waist. The air was clearing with a furious rush of rain,
and her courage was not all gone yet. She looked up to the high
windows, as one about to die might look up from the scaffold, and there
was a streak of clear blue sky between the driving clouds. It was as if
hope looked through, out of heaven, at the girl driven to bay.

Margaret did not try to use her strength, for she knew it was useless
against his. But she held her head back and spoke slowly.

'For your mother's sake,' she said, low and clear, her eyes on his.

For one moment his grasp tightened and his white teeth caught his lower
lip; but his look was changing slowly.

'For her sake,' Margaret said, 'as you would have kept harm from
her----'

His hold relaxed, and he turned away. There was good in him still; he
had loved his mother.

He turned deliberately, till he could see neither Margaret nor the
Aphrodite, and he leaned heavily on the table, with bent head, resting
the weight of his body on the palms of his hands, and remaining quite
motionless for some time.

He heard her go towards the door. Without looking round he slowly shook
his head.

'Don't be afraid of me,' he said, in a low voice. 'It's all over, now.
I'll let you out in a moment.'

'Yes.'

She waited quietly by the door, which she did not understand how to
open. Presently he moved a little, and his head sank lower between his
shoulders; then he spoke again, but still without turning towards her.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I did not know I could be such a brute. Forgive
me, will you?'

As usual, when he was very much in earnest, there was something rudely
abrupt about his speech.

'It was my fault,' Margaret answered from the door. 'I should not have
come.'

Even after her escape, something about him still pleased her. The
maiden that had been brought to bay was scarcely safe, before the human
woman began to be drawn to him again by that sympathy of flesh and
blood that had nearly cost her more than life.

But Margaret revolted against it now, as soon as she knew what it was
that made her speak kindly.

'I'm not afraid of you,' she said, almost coldly, 'but I want you to
let me out, please.'

He straightened himself and turned slowly to her. The dark red colour
was gone from his cheeks, he was suddenly pale and haggard, and if he
had not been really young, he would have looked old; as it was, h