"Because," he cried, with sudden passion, "you are so much like her--do you not see? You are so much like her that I could look in your face and cry out--'Dora, Dora, have you forgotten me?'" She laughed again. "Could you? How strange! I should feel very much surprised if you did." "You are so like her. When I look at you my heart seems to leave me." Her violet eyes, with their proud light, looked into his calmly. "I did not think the men of the present day knew much about love," she said; "but you seem to have loved her." "Loved her!--but I forget myself, Lady Studleigh; you might as well try to imagine what the heat and thunder of battle are like, from seeing them painted on canvas, as guess how I loved her from hearing me use the word love." "You should find her and tell her all this," she said. And from the half-tired expression that for one moment crossed the beautiful face, he knew she was growing politely wearied of the theme. "I am searching for her," he said, his lips growing white and hot as he spoke. "I am looking for her. There are times when I believe that I have found her." "That is well," she replied. "No, it is hardly well. When I am sure that I have discovered her, I shall ask her to marry me; and if she refuses, let her beware! let her beware!" The words came from him with a hiss. Her sunny laughter smote him like the edge of a sharp sword. "How dramatic, Lord Vivianne! I shall begin to think you are rehearsing for a tragedy." He looked confused. "If she be not Dora," he thought, "what will she think of me?" Then he continued: "I ought to apologize, Lady Studleigh. I cannot help it, you are so much like her. I loved her so dearly that, do you see, I would lose my life rather than my hope of winning her for my wife." "But how can you make her your wife, Lord Vivianne?" she asked, wonderingly. "If she had loved you, and had been willing to marry you, she would not have run away, would she?" "I have never understood it; there was a mystery in her disappearance that I never fathomed. But I _will_ fathom it, I _will_ find her, and make her my wife." "Did she run away from all her friends, too?" she asked. He turned to look at her, and they glanced for one half minute steadily at each other. "If I have asked an intrusive question," she said, with a smile, "it was your fault for telling me. Remember, I did not ask your confidence--you gave it to me." "As I would give you the whole world, if I had it," he replied, passionately. "Because I am so much like some one else?" she replied smilingly. "I ought to be grateful to you." "If ever harm or evil comes to me," said Lord Vivianne, "it will be through her. I am not master of myself; when I think of her it maddens me. I believe if I met her--found her, and she refused to be my wife, I should----" "Should what?" she asked, as he hesitated. "I should kill her!" he said, fiercely.