"I do not mean to boast, but I cannot help telling you that your home in Boston, if you will go with me, will be one of the most beautiful in the city. All that wealth can buy you shall have, and all that love and devotion can bring you shall possess. Other girls would jump at the chance--" (poor conical head--this to this girl) "but I want you, Rita--want you of all the world." Rita rose to her feet, surprised and alarmed by this Grecian trick, and Williams, stepping quickly to her side, grasped her hand. He had lost his wonted self-control and was swept forward by the flood of his long-pent-up emotions. "Mr. Williams, I beg you will not--" cried Rita, endeavoring to withdraw her hand. "You shall listen to me," he cried, half in anger, half pleadingly. "I have loved you as tenderly and unselfishly as woman ever was loved, since I first knew you. I know I am not worthy of you, but I am the equal of any other man, and you shall treat me fairly." The girl, in alarm, struggled to free herself from his grasp, but he held her and continued:-- "No other man can give you the love I feel for you, and you shall respond to it." "It is impossible, Mr. Williams," she said pleadingly. "You do not know all. I am sorry, so sorry, to give you pain." Her ever ready tears began to flow. "But I do not feel toward you as you wish. I--there is another. He is--has been very near to me since I was a child, and I have promised to be his wife this long time." Her words were almost maddening to Williams, and he retorted as if he were, in truth, mad. "That country fellow? You shall never marry him! I swear it! He is a poor, supercilious fool and doesn't know it! He has nothing in this world, and has never seen anything beyond the limits of his father's farm." "He has been to New York," interrupted Rita, in all seriousness. Williams laughed. "I tell you he is a boor. He is a--" "He is to be my husband, Mr. Williams, and I hope you will not speak ill of him," said Rita, with cold dignity. "He is not to be your husband," cried Williams, angrily. "You shall be mine--mine; do you hear? Mine! I will have you, if I must--" he caught the girl in his arms, and pressing her head back upon the bend of his elbow, kissed her lips to his heart's content and to his own everlasting undoing. When he released her she started from the room, but he, grasping her arm, detained her, saying:-- "Rita, I beg your pardon. I lost my head. I am sorry. Forgive me." "There can be no forgiveness for you," she said, speaking slowly, "and I wish you to let me leave the room." "Rita, forgive me," he pleaded. "I tell you I was insane when I--I did that. You have almost driven me mad. You can surely forgive me when you know that my act was prompted by my love. Your heart is ready with forgiveness and love for every one but me, and I, more than all others, love you. I beg you to forgive me, and if I cannot have your love, forget what I have done this night and again be my friend."