But the next moment he was walking by her side, holding one hand still captive, as he urged and pleaded with a love-awakened earnestness, while Ella thought of all she had promised to Sir Philip Vining, and upbraided herself bitterly for not leaving Copse Hall, though the blame, if any, was not hers, since Mrs Brandon had again and again refused to hear of her departure. At last she roused herself, and for the next five minutes it was another spirit that contended with that of Charles Vining. "Mr Vining," she said, as quietly but firmly she withdrew her hand; and he saw that, though deeply moved, there was a quiet determined will in existence--"Mr Vining, you tell me that you love me." "And you believe me," cried Charley hastily. "And I believe you," said Ella steadily and hurriedly. "For the sake, then, of that love--for my sake and my future welfare in this world, leave me--try to see me no more--strive to forget all the past, and let these words of yours be to you as some sad dream." "If I forget all this--" "Hush!" she exclaimed firmly; "and remember my prayer to you. I ask you to do all this for my sake--for the sake of the love you bear me. I have promised that I would meet you no more, and that promise I must keep." "Stop!" cried Charley angrily, for she had turned to go. "I love you well, as you know--too well to accede to what you ask--and I tell you now, as I have told those who have importuned me so to do, that I will never, so long as I can see the faintest spark of affection for me, give you up. I go now, Ella, to wait--to wait patiently, even if it be for years. If rumours, set afloat by interested people, meet your ears, credit nothing that tells of want of faith on my part to you. I will be patient, and wait till you are less cruel--till you relent towards me: for now you are to me, I may say, harsh. But recollect this: by your treatment you condemn me to a life of misery and wretchedness, for I can never again know peace. You wish me to leave you?" "Yes," said Ella hoarsely; and without another word, he turned and strode away, his brow knit, and the veins swollen and knotted; but had he turned then, in the midst of his hot anger and disappointment at what he called her cold heartless cruelty, he would have seen so pitiful, so longing a look in Ella's eyes, that he would the next moment have been asking pardon at her feet. But he did not turn; and the next moment the bend in the pathway hid him from her sight, as with a sigh that seemed to cut its way from her heart, she, too, slowly turned, pressed her hands together, and walked sadly back to Mrs Brandon's, closely followed by her charge. Volume 2, Chapter XIII. FOR ANOTHER CAMPAIGN.