Was there, she wondered, any conclusion so shameful as the truth, which at all hazard she was resolved for her mother's sake to hide? "You are secretly meeting and arranging to correspond with some vagrant lover whom you blush so acknowledge." "Lover! Oh, merciful God! When I need a father, and a father's protecting name--when I am heart-sick for my mother, and her shielding healing love--how can you cruelly talk to me of a lover? What right has a nameless, homeless waif to think of love? God grant me a father and a mother, a stainless name, and I shall never need, never wish, never tolerate a lover! Do not insult my misery." She lifted her clenched hands almost menacingly, and her passionate vehemence startled her companion, who could scarcely recognize in the glittering defiant gaze that met his the velvet violet eyes over which the silken fringes had hung with such tender Madonna grace but a half-hour before. "Regina, how could you deceive me so shamefully?" "I did not intend to do so. I am innocent of the disgraceful motives you impute to me; but I cannot explain what you condemn so severely. In all that I have done I have been impelled by a stern, painful sense of duty, and my conscience acquits me; but I shall not give you any explanation. To no human being, except my mother, will I confess the whole matter. Oh, send me at once to her! I asked you to trust me, and you believe me utterly unworthy, think I have forfeited your confidence, even your respect. It is hard, very hard, for I hoped to possess always your good opinion. But it must be borne, and now at least, holding me so low in your esteem, you will not keep me under your roof; you will gladly send me to mother. Let me go. Oh! do let me go--at once; to-morrow." She seemed inexplicably transformed into a woeful desperate woman, and the man's heart yearned to fold her closely in his arms, sheltering her for ever. Drawing nearer, he spoke in a wholly altered voice. "When you asked me to trust you, I did so. Now will you grant me a similar boon? Lily, trust me." His tone had never sounded so low, almost pleading before; and it thrilled her with an overmastering grief, that when he who was wont to command, condescended to sue for her confidence, she was forced to withhold it. "Oh, Mr. Palma, do not ask me! I cannot." He took her hands, unwinding the cold fingers, and in his peculiar magnetic way softly folding them in his warm palms; but she struggled to withdraw them, and he saw the purple shadows deepening under her large eyes. "Little girl, I would not betray your secret Give it to my safekeeping. Show me your heart." As if fearful he might read it, she involuntarily closed her eyes, and her answer was almost a sob. "It is not my secret, it involves others, and I would rather die to-morrow, to-night, than have it known. Oh! let me go away at once, and for ever!"