seemed to him. As he
knocked at the door and listened, a footstep sounded in the hall. Ah,
how many times had his heart leaped at the same sound. The door
opened, and she who was all the world to him stood on the
threshold;--she whom he must soon accuse of hideous duplicity. How
very beautiful she looked. On seeing Effingston, Elinor uttered a low,
startled cry. He noted the action, for love, when coupled with
suspicion (and the two can live together) is not blind, but terribly
vigilant.

"Elinor, I must speak with thee, and alone," he exclaimed.

The girl regarded him with a half frightened look. She had been all
day engaged in a bitter fight with self, and knew not how to tell him
they must part forever. Now he stood before her. She realized to some
extent what the agony of the separation which must soon come would be
to her, and knowing full well the depth of his love, measured his
sufferings by her own. Wild thoughts had passed through her mind of
doing something which would turn that love to hate, and she felt she
could better bear that than know he lived and suffered. But now as she
looked upon him both will and fortitude fast weakened. Again she was
the simple loving woman.

"Wilt thou enter?" she asked in a constrained voice, scarce knowing
what she said.

He crossed the threshold and passed into the little room which held
for him the most tender recollections.

"Elinor, I have come----" he began; then, gazing at the beautiful face
before him, he advanced toward her with outstretched arms--all
resolution gone; "O my darling, I have wronged thee--thou canst tell,
I know, and explain all."

She shrank from his touch, fearing lest her little firmness should
take flight.

"Why dost thou shrink from me?" cried he, swept by a sudden fear which
made his lips dry and his cheeks burn. "O my God, can it then be thou
dost know the purport of my question?"

"I know not what thou meanest," she stammered, astonished at his
words, even amidst her sufferings; "if thou hast aught to ask, pray
say on."

He watched the trembling figure for a moment, interpreting her emotion
as detected guilt, and the demon of jealousy, which, strange to say,
is often led forth by love, burst out, prompting him to speak words
which after uttering, he would have given worlds to unsay.

"Then, know," he cried, "that I have discovered thy methods, and that
I have been duped and dragged on to further some hellish scheme of
thine and his