She interrupted me. "I forgive you," she said, "because you do not know him. But I shall never convince you. You are prejudiced. You do not think ill of me: why do you think ill of him?" I made no answer, and she was silent for a little. Then she began again, recurring to the point at issue: "If he did slight me on that occasion," she said--"and I maintain that he did not--but if he did, it was accidentally done." "The evidence is against him," I answered, drily. "Many innocent persons have suffered because it was," she said, with confidence. "You are infatuated," I answered, roughly. And then my heart sent up an exceeding great and bitter cry: "Ideala! Ideala! how did it ever come to this?" She was silent. But her eyes were bright once more, her figure was erect, there was new life in her--I could see that--and never a doubt. She was satisfied. She was happy. "Must I give you up?" she said at last, tentatively. "No, you must give him up," I answered. "Ah, that is impossible!" she cried. "We were made for each other. We cannot live apart." "Ideala," I exclaimed, exasperated, "he never believed in you. He thought you were as so many women of our set are, and he showed it, if only you could have understood, when you saw him at the Hospital on that last occasion. You felt that there was some change, as you say yourself, and that was it. You talked to him of truth then, and it irritated him as the devil quoting Scripture might be supposed to irritate; and when you went back again he showed what he thought of you by his unexplained absence. He thought you were not worth consideration, and he gave you none." "It would have been paying himself a very poor compliment if he had thought that only a corrupt woman could care for him," she answered, confidently. "But, I tell you, I am sure there is some satisfactory explanation of that business. I only wish I had remembered to ask for it, that I might satisfy you now. And, at any rate," she added, "whatever he may have thought, he knows better by this time." I could say no more. Baffled and sick at heart, I left her, wondering if some happy inspiration would come before it was too late, and help me to save her yet. CHAPTER XXV. I went to consult my sister Claudia. The blow was a heavy one for her also; but I was surprised to find that she did not share my contempt for the person whom I considered responsible for all this trouble. "Ideala is no common character herself," Claudia argued; "and it isn't likely that a common character would fascinate her as this man has done." "Will you speak to her, Claudia, and see what your influence will do?"