d before, Alice, that I do not attempt to defend my faithlessness,
hardly to extenuate it; and I do not at all wonder at your altered
temper towards me. It was a cruel blow I gave you. But my life shall
show you the sincerity of my repentance."

She shook her head as she answered,--

"When you left me, the last spark of love went out. It is hard to kindle
anew the dead embers. No,--when I found that you _could_ be untrue, all
was over,--past, present, and future."

"But consider," he said, still more earnestly, "what remains for you or
me. You will have the memory of this great sorrow, and I the unending
remorse. I can never love another woman while you live, and you--may I
say it?--will never love again as you have loved. Is it not for your
own happiness, as it is most assuredly for mine, that you overlook the
fault, receive me again, and trust to the lasting effect of the bitter
lesson I have learned? Forgive me, if I seem too bold,--if the desire to
atone for the past makes me sue for pardon with unbecoming zeal. If I
were less urgent, it would be because I was not sensible of the wrong,
and careless about reparation."

She was silent; contending passions strove for mastery. She had not
forgotten him, then! He took courage and came yet nearer.

"Will you give me your hand? Alice, will you?"

He reached his own towards her.

"No,--pardon me,--I must not. It is not well to decide by impulse,--to
be swayed by a thrill. When my heart tells me to give you my hand, it
shall be yours. I don't wish to be charmed out of my calmer judgment.
Your presence, your fiery words, and your will, are sufficiently
magnetic."

"My dear Alice, I have been guilty of _one_ folly, a serious one, but
you don't believe I am incapable of constancy henceforth. Remember you
were away; time hung heavily on my hands; my good nature made me accept
invitations which brought me into daily contact with a woman who of all
others was most dangerous to a man of ardent temperament. The friendship
which began without a thought of a nearer relation grew into an intimacy
which I was not far-sighted enough to check. In your own words, I was
magnetized, thoroughly; and when, at last, in a scene of imminent
danger, I rashly said some things that should not have been spoken, I
found myself committed irrevocably. It is not too much to say that the
lady was looking for the opportunity which fate and my own stupidity
gave her. But the spell did not last. Yo