voice faltered; there was a look of repressed tears about her
drooped eyes. She had plainly been over the first part of this path
before, but she was getting on untrodden ground.

"Duty is the principal thing; there is always some sweetness sooner or
later with that; but without it, the best things will turn to ashes
and dust."

"I know, I know," he cried. "But I can't feel that now. I can only
feel one thing; I can only care for one thing. I only know that there
is but one person in all the world for me, and that duty, and reason,
and heaven itself, mean nothing beside her. And it is like death to
hear her say these things to me, and to know that she could not say
them if she cared for me as I do for her."

He thought her as steady as the rocks, and to her the solid earth
seemed to heave round her more than the unstable sea. But she steadied
herself and replied:

"Ought you not to be glad if it is not so? It would not alter your
duty. Would it not make it the harder for you? Would it not make your
way darker than it is?"

"Glad!" he called out, despairingly. "Glad that the sun is put out in
the sky; that the earth is a desert and my heart an intolerable pang;
that there is no more purpose, or spring, or desire in my life! Oh,
yes, I am glad, glad! You can't know what you say!"

She clasped her hands; she laid her shoulder and face against the
rock; she spoke bitterly:

"Oh, do not try me so. Do you suppose there is nothing hard for me
also? Yes, I know; I know!"

He bent toward her, but a horrible doubt seized him. He clasped his
hands behind his head; he swung from side to side.

"For another? Not for me?" he demanded, hoarsely.

She stood unsteadily; she lifted her joined hands; her upturned face
was aflame, but she could not speak. Then her self-repression broke
down. She sank upon the rock and covered her face, and wept
uncontrollably. He threw himself beside her.

"Oh, is it true?" he besought her. "Can it be true?"

"Yes!--yes!" she cried, sobbing vehemently. "I tried to keep it down;
I would not hear it. I tried to do right. But I can't help it now."

He turned his face up to the sky and groaned. "O God!" It was as if
heaven came within his reach, and resistless hands stretched out and
held him back. But it was too much. Fierce joy rushed upon him and
swept away everything else. He stretched out his arms; he bowed over
her; he caught her and held her fast. The sun leaped up in the sky.
The wave