ch made her beautiful face look even paler
than it was, sat my love, bowed, despondent, silent. The household,
although still astir, was hushed by the presence of the dead; the long
old room itself, usually so bright and pleasant, seemed full of dark
shadows, for the lamp, beneath its yellow shade, burned but dimly, and
everywhere there reigned an air of mourning.

Half-demented by grief, my love had arrived in hot haste about ten
o'clock, and, rushing to poor Mary's room, had thrown herself upon her
knees beside the poor inanimate clay; for, even though of late
differences might have existed between them, the sisters were
certainly devoted to each other. The scene in that room was an unhappy
one, for although Ethelwynn betrayed nothing by her lips, I saw by her
manner that she was full of remorse over the might-have-beens, and
that she was bitterly reproaching herself for some fact of which I had
no knowledge.

Of the past we had not spoken. She had been too full of grief, too
utterly overcome by the tragedy of the situation. Her mournful figure
struck a sympathetic chord in my heart. Perhaps I had misjudged her;
perhaps I had attributed to her sinister motives that were
non-existent. Alas! wherever mystery exists, little charity enters
man's heart. Jealousy dries up the milk of human kindness.

"Dearest," I said, rising and taking her slim white hand that lay idly
in her lap, "in this hour of your distress you have at least one
person who would console and comfort you--one man who loves you."

She raised her eyes to mine quickly, with a strange, eager look. Her
glance was as though she did not fully realize the purport of my
words. I knew myself to be a sad blunderer in the art of love, and
wondered if my words were too blunt and abrupt.

"Ah!" she sighed. "If only I believed that those words came direct
from your heart, Ralph!"

"They do," I assured her. "You received my letter at Hereford--you
read what I wrote to you?"

"Yes," she answered. "I read it. But how can I believe in you further,
after your unaccountable treatment? You forsook me without giving any
reason. You can't deny that."

"I don't seek to deny it," I said. "On the contrary, I accept all the
blame that may attach to me. I only ask your forgiveness," and bending
to her in deep earnestness, I pressed the small hand that was within
my grasp.

"But if you loved me, as you declare you have always done, why did you
desert me in that manner?" s