So they went out together, and Lady St. Lawrence looked after them with a sigh. "She is a most beautiful girl, certainly, and I admire her. If she only had Lillith Davenant's money!" Sir Vane and Pauline walked in silence down to the shore, and then the former turned to his companion. "Miss Darrell," he said, "will you tell me why you were not willing to come out with me--why you have avoided me and turned the light of your beautiful face from me?" Her face flushed, and her heart beat, but she made no answer. "I have borne my impatience well for the last three days," he said; "now I must speak to you, for I can bear it no longer, Pauline. Oh, do not turn away from me! I love you, and I want you to be my wife--my wife, darling; and I will love you--I will cherish you--I will spend my whole life in working for you. I have no hope so great, so sweet, so dear, as the hope of winning you." She made him no answer. Yet her silence was more eloquent than words. "It seems a strange thing to say, but, Pauline, I loved you the first moment I saw you. Do you remember, love? You were sitting with one of my books in your hand, and the instant my eyes fell upon your beautiful face a great calm came over me. I could not describe it; I felt that in that minute my life was completed. My whole heart went out to you, and I knew, whether you ever learned to care for me or not, that you were the only woman in all the world for me." She listened with a happy smile playing round her beautiful lips, her dark eyes drooping, her flower-like face flushed and turned from his. "You are my fate--my destiny! Ah! if you love me, Pauline--if you will only love me, I shall not have lived in vain! Your love would incite me to win name and fame--not for myself, but for you. Your love would crown a king--what would it not do for me? Turn your face to me, Pauline? You are not angry? Surely great love wins great love--and there could be no love greater than mine." Still the beautiful face was averted. There was the sunlight on the sea; the western wind sighed around them. A great fear came over him. Surely, on this most fair and sunny day, his love was not to meet a cruel death. His voice was so full of this fear when he spoke again that she, in surprise, turned and looked at him. "Pauline," he cried, "you cannot mean to be cruel to me. I am no coward, but I would rather face death than your rejection." Then it was that their eyes met; and that which he saw in hers was a revelation to him. The next moment he had clasped her to his heart, and was pouring out a torrent of passionate words--such words, so tender, so loving, so full of passion and hope, that her face grew pale as she listened, and the beautiful figure trembled.