She uttered a wild cry of alarm and shrank back for a moment or two in the corner of the compartment, for, in spite of the great speed at which they were going, the carriage window on her left was suddenly darkened, the door thrown open, and a man climbed in, fastening the door again, and then sinking panting upon the opposite seat. "You here?" she cried wildly. "Oh! what madness!" "Yes, hardly the work of a sane man, with a train going at express speed." "You might have been killed!" cried Marion, trying hard to be firm, and descending to commonplaces. "Yes, it seemed very likely once, for the carriages were a good way apart; but if I had been, what then? Not the first man who has died for a woman's sake." "Why have you come?" she said hurriedly. "Why have I come?" he replied contemptuously. "You ask that! Well, let me tell you; because I knew that sooner or later you would try to elude me; and I have watched night and day to prevent that. Correct me if I am wrong; my heart tells me that you are going up to town to avoid me, and are then going further to be where I cannot find you. Am I correct?" "Yes, quite," she replied gravely. "I did not know that I was so weak. I know it now, and, as I have told you, we must never meet again." "I will not argue with you," he said, "only tell you once more that you take a woman's view of imaginary danger. I take that of a man determined to sacrifice life sooner than lose sight of you again--a poor stake, perhaps, for without you it is a worthless thing, but it is all I have." She sighed and he saw that her face grew harder, as she avoided his gaze and sat looking out of the window in silence. "Do I understand you," she said at last, "that you mean to follow me?" "To the world's end," he cried. "Is his manly, to force yourself upon a helpless woman?" "No; it is despicable perhaps, but I am lost now to reason. You are everything to me; to be near you is to live--to lose sight of you is to die. You are my fate, and you draw me to your side." "To your ruin, perhaps to your death," she said wildly. "You must have grasped what kind of men my relatives are. You must have seen what risk you run." "Yes, I have seen and thought out all this, but it is as nothing to your love." "And would you see me suffer through your folly and imprudence?" "I would give anything to spare you suffering." "Then leave me before my agony becomes too great to bear." "I--can--not!" he cried. "Drive me from you, and when I find that all hope is gone, then I will seek for rest." "What!" she cried. He shrugged his shoulders. "I am no boasting boy," he said sadly. "Everything to make life worth living will be gone, and an easy painless death beckoning me on. I am a doctor, I have but to go home, and there it is, to my hand." She said nothing, but sank back in the corner of the carriage, covering her face with her hands; and he saw that her breast was heaving with the painful sobs struggling for exit.