She knew that she was watched by Tory and Kattern, and she did not put them off the scent; she knew that Amethyst was only blind because her thoughts were absorbed by Lucian's condition; she knew how welcome her engagement would be to every one belonging to her. But day by day her heart grew heavier within her, and she dreaded more and more the moment of decision. It came one day, among the olive trees, over a bed of violets, with the blue sea behind them, and the white peaks before, a sweet sense of spring-time in the air, and everything befitting the spring of fresh young hope. He was alone with her, and his tongue was loosed, and all his honest love and his eager longings were laid at her feet, and the prospect of a good and happy life was offered to her, all the blessings the value of which she had learned to know full well. And her heart turned from it utterly, she shrank from his hand and his kiss. She had had her day--a day almost before the dawn--and she thought that she could never give herself to any man again. She refused him, with a rain of tears and a passion of self-reproach, knowing that she had allowed him to expect another answer. Her words were so wild, and her manner so strange, that Wilfred, as he stood, pale and bitterly disappointed, felt as if he had wooed a mermaid, some incomprehensible, uncanny creature of a different race from his own. But he was stunned. "Una," he said, "I think you gave me a right to expect another answer. You have given me a bitter blow. I shall go away where I cannot see your face--your cruel face. But I don't give you up. I shall try again!" Una fled away from him, and rushed home, where she threw herself into Amethyst's arms, and sobbed out all her self-reproach and her self-despair. "Oh, my dear, I should have looked after you better!" said Amethyst regretfully. "But are you sure? Can't you ask him to give you a little time?" "Oh, Amethyst, I like him, I hoped it would come to me, till yesterday, when we were picking flowers, he kissed my hand, and then--then all last night I dreamt of _other_ kisses, oh, I felt them--I can feel them now. I've none left!" "Dear Una, the past is not meant to spoil our future--there is forgiveness and peace--" "For you--for you--You look back on a paradise, and I on--" "Oh, Una--but it's all over, you have all your life left!" "I have--I have!" cried Una, lifting her face from Amethyst's shoulder, "I would not have that past again, not the maddest moment of it! I will live--I will be good for something in spite of it. Oh--I should like to give my life to telling girls that one _can_ be different. I think I'd _die_ to keep another child from my fate! But it has been--and alas and alas, it will be!" This was the wrong that Tony had done her. She had saved her soul alive, but the first spring of her heart was gone for ever, and if a second came, it might not be till the chances of life were over for her.