to the dining-room door.

Miss Darrell was sitting on the circular seat looking out on the oak
avenue; she did not turn her head, and there was something hopeless in
the line of her stooping shoulders. I saw her hands clutch the cushions
nervously as her cousin walked straight to the window.

'Etta,' he began abruptly, 'I wish you to listen to me a moment. I will
spare you all I can, for Aunt Margaret's sake: I do not intend to be more
hard with you than my duty demands.'

'Oh, Giles!' raising her eyes at this mild commencement; but they dropped
again at the sight of the dark impenetrable face, which certainly had no
look of pity on it. She must have felt then, what I should certainly have
felt in her place, that any prayers or tears would be wasted on him.

'It would be useless, and worse than useless,' he went on, 'to point out
to you the heinousness of your sin,--perhaps I should say crime. All
these years you have not faltered in your relentless course; no pity for
me and mine has touched your heart; you have allowed our poor lad to
wander about the world as an outcast; you have suffered Gladys to carry a
heavy and bitter weight in her bosom. Pshaw! why do I reiterate these
things? you know them all.'

'Giles, I have loved you in spite of it all! Be merciful to me!' But he
went on as though he heard her no more than the rain dripping on the
leaves.

'This home is yours no longer; you are no fit companion for my sisters,
even if I could bear to shelter a traitor under my roof. If I know my
present feelings, I will never willingly see your face again: whether I
ever do see it depends on your future conduct.'

'Oh, for pity's sake, Giles!' She was writhing now. In spite of all her
sins against him, she had loved him in her perverse way.

'I have found you a home far from here,' he continued in the same
chilling manner, 'and to-morrow morning you will be taken to it. The
Alnwicks are kind, worthy people--not rich in this world's goods, or what
the world would call refined. I was able to help them once when they were
in bitter straits: in return they have acceded to my request and have
offered you a home.'

'I will not go!' she sobbed passionately. 'I would rather you should kill
me, Giles, than treat me with such cruelty!'

'They are old,' he went on calmly, 'but more with trouble than years, and
they have no one belonging to them, and they promise to treat you like a
daughter. You will be in comfort, but no