"Oh, I do thank you!" she said, piteously, "I would--if I could. I--I shall never care for any one else--but I can't--I can't." He was silent a moment, and then said, taking her hands, and putting them to his lips-- "Won't you explain?" "Yes, I'll try--I ought to. You see"--she looked up in anguish--"I'm not my own--to give--and I--No, no, I couldn't make you happy!" "You mean--you're--you're too deeply pledged to this Society?" He had dropped her hands, and stood looking at her, as if he would read her through. "I must go up to town next week," she said hurriedly. "I must go, and I must do what Gertrude tells me. Perhaps--I can protect--save her. I don't know. I daresay I'm absurd to think so--but I might--and I'm bound. But I'm promised--promised in honour--and I can't--get free. I can't give up Gertrude--and you--you could never bear with her--or accept her. And so--you see--I should just make you miserable!" He walked away, his hands in his pockets, and came back. Then suddenly he took her by the shoulders. "You don't imagine I shall acquiesce in this!" he said passionately--"that I shall endure to see you tied and chained by a woman whom I know you have ceased to respect, and I believe you have ceased to love!" "No!--no!--" she protested. "I think it is so," he said, steadily. "That is how I read it!" She gave a sob--quickly repressed. Then she violently mastered herself. "If it were true--I can't marry you. I won't be treacherous--nor a coward. And I won't ruin your life. Dear Mr. Mark--it's quite, quite impossible. Let's never talk of it again." And straightening all her slender body, she faced him with that foolish courage, that senseless heroism, which women have so terribly at command. So far, however from obliging her, he broke into a tempest of discussion bringing to bear upon her all the arguments that love or common sense dictated. If she really cared for him at all, if she even thought it possible she might care, was she going to refuse all help--all advice--from one to whom she had grown so dear?--to whom everything she did was now of such vital, such desperate importance? He pleaded for himself--guessing it to be the more hopeful way.