"No!" she answered in a low tone, her breast slowly heaving and falling. "If you have really escaped the enthralment it is enough. You may congratulate yourself." "Why?" "Merely because you have avoided the pitfall set in your path," she answered. "She was beautiful. It was because of her loveliness that you became entranced, was it not?" "There is no necessity to conceal anything," I said. "You speak the truth." "And you had some illustrations of the evil influence which lay within her?" Muriel asked. I recollected how my crucifix had been mysteriously reduced to ashes, and nodded in the affirmative, wondering whether I should ever succeed in obtaining knowledge of the truth which she evidently possessed. "Yet you had the audacity to love her!" she laughed. "You thought that she--this woman whom all the world would hound down if they knew the true facts--could love you in return! It is amazing how a pretty face can lead the strongest-willed man to ruin." I rather resented her attitude in thus interfering in my private affairs. That I admired her was true; yet I was not her lover, and she had no right to object to any of my actions. "I cannot see that I have been so near ruin as you would make out," I exclaimed, philosophically. "An unrequited love is an incident in most men's lives." "Ah! she spared you!" she cried. "If she had smitten you, you would have perished as swiftly as objects dissolve into ashes when she is present. At least she pitied you. And you were doubly fortunate." "Yes," I said, reflecting upon her words, at the same time recollecting her mysterious connection with poor Roddy Morgan. "She was without doubt endowed with a power that was inexplicable." "Inexplicable!" she echoed. "It was supernatural. Things withered at her touch." "If I, your friend, am fortunate in my escape, would it not be but an act of friendship to explain to me all you know concerning her?" Her dark, luminous eyes met mine in a long, earnest glance. "No!" she answered, after a moment's reflection. "I have already explained. You have escaped; the incident is ended." And she added with a laugh, "Your neglect of me was, of course, fully justified in such circumstances." "Now, that's unfair, Muriel," I exclaimed. "I had no intention of neglecting you, neither had I the slightest suspicion that you desired me to say farewell to you. Have you not told me that you have an admirer whom you could love? Surely that is sufficient. Love him, and we may always remain friends, as we now are." "No!" she responded, with a dark look of foreboding. "We cannot remain friends longer. Our mutual confidence is shattered. We may be acquaintances, but nothing more."