"Let us leave them alone," she pleaded. "I hate them. Deep down in my heart, I do not disbelieve. Before you had half finished your story, my pride was broken. Yes, when you pictured the chapel on the night you returned, and the moonlight lingering on the crown of Jesus, I knelt with you in spirit before that altar and words came back to my lips that I hadn't said since I was a child." In exceeding thankfulness he was about to speak; but she hurried on. "Antonio," she said, "if you send me away, perhaps you will think of me as a temptress--a woman raised up by the devil to blandish you aside from your holy purpose, and to lure you into trampling upon your vows. Promise you will never think of me like that. Kneeling here on my knees, I swear before God that I am not ... that." She paused. Then, with her head bent so that he could not see her face, and in low tones, she added slowly: "I have only wanted to be near you--to be with you, to spend all the rest of my life listening to you, helping you. Heaven knows there has never been for a moment anything ... anything base in my love. I know what most people mean by love and I loathe it. Tell me you don't misunderstand. Say you believe me. Promise you'll never think of me like that." "I promise," said Antonio, deeply moved. And, try as he would, he could say no more. After a long time she raised her head abruptly and challenged his eyes. By the pallor which blanched her cheeks he divined her question, and he knew that the bitterest moment of his life was come. "So there is no room for me?" she asked in low, vibrating tones. "No room for Isabel as well as for your Bride? You send me away?" He tried to be cool; but the flame of her pure heart's yearning so scorched him that he cried out: "No, I do not send you away. It is not my will; it is God's. He knows, Isabel, He knows that all the sacrifices I have ever made and all the trials I have ever borne are as a few grains of dust compared with this. I do not send you away. But you must go. Our spirits are willing to take high and holy vows, here and now; but we are flesh and we are weak. You must go. You must. You will." She arose slowly and stood upright. Instantly he did the same. He seized her hand; but before he could speak, she said quietly: "I will go. After this, unless miracles happen, you will only see me with Mrs. Baxter or with my father. But, before I go, do me one little kindness. I promise that, so long as I live, it shall be a secret between us. I know your heart. Once, only once, let me hear you say that you love me."