Lavinia perceived him at last, and abruptly tore herself away from Lionel's caresses. Lionel, furious at the interruption, but full of love and hope, assisted her to remount, and escorted her to her door. There she said to him, lowering her voice: "Lionel, you have made me an offer of which I realize the full value. I cannot reply without mature reflection." "O God! that is the same reply you gave Monsieur de Morangy!" "No, no; it is not the same thing," she replied, in an altered voice. "But your presence here may give rise to many absurd reports. If you really love me, Lionel, you will swear to obey me." "I swear it by God and by you." "Very well! go away at once, and return to Bagnères; on my part, I promise you that you shall have my reply within forty hours." "But what will become of me, great God! during that century of suspense?" "You will hope," said Lavinia, hurriedly closing the door, as if she were afraid of saying too much. Lionel did hope. His reasons for hoping were a word from Lavinia and all the arguments of his own self-esteem. "You are wrong to abandon the game," said Henry, as they rode away; "Lavinia was beginning to melt. On my word, Lionel, that doesn't seem like you. Even if for no other reason than not to leave Morangy master of the field---- But I see that you are more in love with Miss Ellis than I thought." Lionel was too preoccupied to listen to him. He passed the interval fixed by Lavinia, locked in his room, representing that he was ill; and did not deign to confide in Sir Henry, who lost himself in conjectures concerning his conduct. At last the letter arrived; it was in these terms: "_Neither the one nor the other!_ When you receive this letter, when Monsieur de Morangy, whom I have sent to Tarbes, receives his reply, I shall be far from you both; I shall have gone, gone forever, gone irrevocably, so far as you and he are concerned. "You offer me name and rank and fortune; you believe that a brilliant position in society has a great fascination for a woman. Oh, no! not for her who knows society and despises it as I do. Do not think, however, Lionel, that I disdain the offer you made to sacrifice a brilliant marriage, and bind yourself to me forever. "You realized what a cruel blow it is to a woman's self-esteem to be abandoned, what a glorious triumph it is to bring back a once faithless swain to her feet, and you thought to compensate me by that triumph for all I have suffered; so I give you my esteem once more, and I would forgive you the past had I not done so long ago. "But understand, Lionel, that it is not in your power to repair the wrong. No, it is in no man's power. The blow I received was a deadly blow; it killed the power to love in me forever; it extinguished the torch of illusions, and life appears to me in a dull and miserable light.