Esther's defense was disconcerted by this attack. Hazard was bent on getting back to his old familiar ground, and she let him take it. Her last hope was that he might be willing to take it, and be made content with it. If she could but persuade him to forget what had passed, and return to the footing of friendship which ought never to have been left! This was what she was made for! Her courage rose as she thought that perhaps this was possible, and as he sat down before the drawing and discussed it, she fancied that her object was already gained, and that this young greyhound at her elbow could be held in a leash and made to obey a sign. In a few minutes he had taken again his old friendly place, and if she did not treat him with all the old familiarity, he still gained ground enough to warrant him in believing more firmly than ever that she could not resist his influence so long as he was at her side. They ran on together in talk about the drawing, until he felt that he might risk another approach, and his way of doing it was almost too easy and dexterous. "What you want to get into your picture," he was saying; "is the air, which the fall has, of being something final. You can't go beyond Niagara. The universe seems made for it. Whenever I come here, I find myself repeating our sonnet: 'Siccome eterna vita e veder dio;' for the sight of it suggests eternity and infinite power." Then suddenly putting down the drawing, and looking up to her face, as she stood by his side, he said: "Do you know, I feel now for the first time the beauty of the next two verses: 'So, lady, sight of you, in my despair, Brings paradise to this brief life and frail.'" "Hush!" said Esther, raising her hand again; "we are friends now and nothing more." "Mere friends, are we?" quoted Hazard, with a courageous smile. "No!" he went on quickly. "I love you. I cannot help loving you. There is no friendship about it." "If you tell me so, I must run away again. I shall leave the room. Remember! I am terribly serious now." "If you tell me, honestly and seriously, that you love me no longer and want me to go away, I will leave the room myself," answered Hazard. "I won't say that unless you force me to it, but I expect you from this time to help me in carrying out what you know is my duty." "I will promise, on condition that you prove to me first what your duty is." To come back again to their starting point was not encouraging, and they felt it, but this time Esther was determined to be obeyed even if it cost her a lover as well as a husband. She did not flinch. "What more proof do you need? I am not fit to be a clergyman's wife. I should be a scandal in the church, and you would have to choose between it and me." "I know you better," said Hazard calmly. "You will find all your fears vanish if you once boldly face them." "I have tried," said Esther. "I tried desperately and failed utterly."