g, for God's great To-morrow,
when you will come to be with me for ever and ever, beyond the world,
and all parting and all pain!'

There was a deep appeal to higher things in her words and in her
voice, too, but it did not touch him; he only knew that at the very
moment when she had seemed to be near yielding, the terrible
conviction of her soul had come once more between him and her.

'There is no beyond,' he answered, chilled and sullen again. 'You live
in a lying legend; your life is a fable and your sacrifice is a
crime.'

The cruel words struck her tormented heart, as icy hailstones bruise
the half-clad body of a starving child, out in the storm.

'You hurt me very much,' she said in a low voice.

'Forgive me!' he cried quickly. 'I did not mean to. I forget that you
believe your dreams, for I cannot live in visions as you do. I only
see a blind force, striking in the dark, a great injustice done to us
both--a wrong I will undo, come what may!'

'You know my answer to that. You can undo nothing.'

'I am not answered yet. You say you love me--prove it!'

'Only my life can,' said the nun; 'only our two lives can prove our
love, for we can live for each other still, perhaps we shall be
allowed to die for each other, and in each other we shall find
strength to resist----'

'Not to resist love itself, Angela.'

'No, not to resist all that is good and true in love.'

'I cannot see what you see,' he answered. 'Nothing human is beyond my
comprehension, good or bad, but you cannot make a monk of me, still
less a saint--a Saint Louis of Gonzaga, who was too modest to look his
own mother in the face!'

He laughed roughly, but checked himself at once, fearing to hurt her
again.

She turned to him with a look of gentle authority.

'In spite of what you have done to-night,' she said, 'you are such a
manly man, that you can be the man you will. Listen! If another woman
tried to get your love, could you resist her? Would you, for love of
me?'

'She would have small chance, you know that well enough.'

'There is another woman in me, Giovanni. Resist her!'

'I do not understand.'

'You must try! There is another woman in me, or what is left of her,
and she is quite different from my real self. Resist her for my sake,
as I am fighting her with all my strength. It was she who tempted you
to bring me here by a trick you are ashamed of already; it was she
that made me weak, just now; but she is not the woman you