"Blood for blood!" responded Paul, hotly. "No, not unless I killed him; then I might." Eve rose. Paul got up. "Oh, are you going?" But she did not hear him; she had gone to her lodge. He sat down again. She did not reappear that night. The next morning she went off for a solitary walk. By chance her steps took the direction of a small promontory that jutted sharply into the lake, its perpendicular face rising to a height of forty feet from the deep water below; she had been here several times before, and knew the place well; it was about a mile from the camp. As she sat there, Paul's figure appeared through the trees. He came straight to her. "I have been looking for you, I tried to find you last night." He paused a moment. "Eve, don't you see what I've come for? Right in the midst of all this grief and trouble I've found out something. It's just this, Eve: I love you." She tried to rise, but he put his hand on her shoulder to keep her where she was. "Oh, but I do, you needn't doubt it," he went on, with an amused smile--amused at himself; "in some way or other the thing has come about, I may say, in spite of me. I never thought it would. But here 'tis--with a vengeance! I think of you constantly, I can't help thinking of you; I recognize, at last, that the thing is unchangeable, that it's for life; have you I must." The words were despotic, but the tone was entreating; and the eyes, looking down upon her, were caressing--imploring. "Yes, I'm as helpless as any one," Paul went on, smiling as he said it; "I can't sleep, even. Come, take me; I'm not such a bad fellow, after all--I really think I'm not. And as regards my feeling for you, you need not be troubled; it's strong enough!" She quailed under his ardor. "I haven't spoken before because there has been so much to do," Paul continued; "there has been Cicely, and then I've been harassed about business; I've been in a box, and trying to get out. Besides, I wasn't perfectly sure that my time had come." He laughed. "I'm sure now." He took her in his arms. "Don't let us make any delays, Eve; we're not so young, either of us. Not that you need be afraid that you're to be the less happy on that account; I'll see to that!" She broke from him. But again he came to her, he took her hands, and, kneeling, laid his forehead upon them. "I will be as humble as you like; only--be good to me. I long for it, I must have it." A sob rose in her throat. He sprang up. "Don't do that! Why, I want to make you absolutely happy, if I can. We shall have troubles enough, and perhaps we shall have sorrows, but at least we shall be together; you must never leave me, and I will do all I can to be less rough. But on your side there's one thing, Eve: you _must_ love me." These last words were murmured in her ear. She drew herself away from him. The expression of her face was almost like death. "You look as though you were afraid of me! I thought you loved me, Eve?" "I do."