taining
clasp.

"Mr. Laurence, what right have you to hold me thus?"

"What right, Blanche? The right of every man over the woman who loves
him!"

"That is your right over me no longer. I have tried to avoid you. You
have both seen and known it! No _gentleman_ would force himself upon my
notice in this manner."

"Your taunt fails to have any effect upon me. I have sought an
explanation of your extraordinary conduct from you in vain. My letters
have been unanswered, my entreaties for a last interview disregarded;
and now that chance has brought us together again, I must have what I
have a right to ask from your own lips. I did not devise this meeting; I
did not even know you had returned to England till yesterday, and then I
sought to avoid you; but it was fated that we should meet, and it is
fated that you satisfy my curiosity."

"What do you want to know?" she asked, in a low voice.

"First, have you ceased to love me?"

The angry light which had flashed across her face when he used force to
detain her died away; the pallid lips commenced to tremble, and in the
sunken eyes large tear-drops rose and hung quivering upon the long
eyelashes.

"Enough, Blanche," Mr. Laurence continued, in a softer voice. "Nature
answers me. I will not give you the needless pain of speaking. Then, why
did you forsake me? Why did you leave England without one line of
farewell, and why have you refused to hold any communication with me
since that time?"

"I _could_ not," she murmured. "You do not know; you cannot feel; you
could never understand my feelings on that occasion."

"That is no answer to my question, Blanche," he said firmly, "and an
answer I will have. What was the immediate cause of your breaking faith
with me? I loved you, you know how well. What drove you from me? Was it
fear, or indifference, or a sudden remorse?"

"It was," she commenced slowly, and then as if gathering up a great
resolution, she suddenly exclaimed, "Do you _really_ wish to know what
parted us?"

"I really intend to know," he replied, and the old power which he had
held over her recommenced its sway. "Whatever it was it has not tended
to your happiness," he continued, "if I may judge from your looks. You
are terribly changed, Blanche! I think even I could have made you
happier than you appear to have been."

"I have had enough to change me," she replied. "If you will know then,
come with me, and I will show you."

"To-day?"

"At once; to-