it yet. I wish I had told
him--_once_--how dearly I loved him; I shall never be able to whisper it
to him now, and I dare not write it. No, he will not forget me as he has
forgotten others; but he will hate me, and call me false, and fickle,
and cold. Cold--if he could only read my heart! I never read it myself
till now, when we must be parted forever."

Is it pleasant, think you, to listen to such words as these, uttered by
the woman that you have worshiped, even if it be hopelessly, for years?
Men have gone mad under lighter tortures than those that Mark Waring was
then forced to endure. But he knew that it was the extremity of her
anguish that had hardened for a season Cecil's gentle, generous, nature,
and made her heedless of the pain she inflicted. So he answered in a
slow, steady voice, such as we employ when trying to calm the ravings of
a fever-fit:

"Hush! you speak wildly. My presence here does you no good. You may
think of me as hardly as you will; perhaps time will soften your
judgment; if not--I shall still not repent to-night's work. I will come
for your letter at the moment of your departure. Good-night; I pray that
God may help you now, and guard you always." He raised her hand and just
touched it with his lips, with the same grave courtesy that had marked
his manner when they parted last, three years ago, and in another second
Cecil was alone again.

She was not long in recovering from her bewilderment; and when Mrs.
Danvers returned she was perfectly collected and calm. It is not worth
while recording Bessie's noisy expressions of astonishment and delight,
nor describing Dick Tresilyan's way of receiving notice of the sudden
change in their plans. His stolid composure was not greatly disturbed
thereby; he muttered, under his breath, some sulky anathemas on "women
who never knew their own minds;" but this was only because he considered
a growl to be the form of protest suitable to the circumstances and due
to his masculine dignity. On the whole, he was rather glad to go. It had
become evident, even to his dull comprehension, that great mischief was
brewing somewhere, and for days he had been in a state of hazy
apprehension--as he expressed it, "not seeing his way out of it at all."
So he set about his part of the preparations for their exodus with a
right good will. Neither will we give the details of Cecil's parting
with _la mignonne_. The latter was so rejoiced at the idea of her
friend's being out