"And I am unable to answer you--unable to tell the truth, Nino," she replied brokenly, her trembling hand seeking his. "Why unable?" he demanded, sitting erect and staring at her in blank surprise. "Because--because I love you too well to deceive you," she sobbed. Then she added, "No, after all, it will be best for us to part--best for you. If you knew all, as you must some day--if we married, you would only hate me;" and she burst into a torrent of blinding tears. "Hate you--why?" he asked, slipping his arm around her slim waist. With a sudden movement she raised her veil and wiped away the tears with her little lace handkerchief. "Ah! forgive me," she exclaimed apologetically. "I did not believe I was so weak. But I love you, Nino. I cannot bear the thought of being parted from you." "There is surely no necessity to part," he said, purposely disregarding the strange self-accusation she had just uttered. "You must go to Paris. Therefore we must part," she said, sighing deeply. "Then you will not accompany me?" Her blue eyes, child-like in their innocence, were fixed upon his. They were again filled with tears. "For your sake it is best we should part," she answered hoarsely. "Why? I cannot understand your meaning," he cried. "We love one another. What do you fear?" "I fear myself." "Yourself?" he echoed. Then, drawing her closer to him, he exclaimed in a low intense voice, "Come, Gemma, confide in me. Tell we why you desire to remain here; why you are acting so strangely to-day." She rose slowly from the divan, a slim, woeful figure, and swayed unevenly as she answered-- "No, Nino. Do not ask me." "But you still love me?" he demanded earnestly. "Have you not just expressed readiness to marry me?" "True," she replied, pale and trembling. "I will marry you if you remain here in Livorno. But if you leave--if you leave, then we must part." "My journey is absolutely necessary," he declared. "If it were not, I should certainly remain with you." "In a week, or a fortnight at most, you can return, I suppose? Till then, I shall remain awaiting you." "No," he replied firmly. "When I leave Italy, I shall not return." Then, after a slight pause, he added in a low, sympathetic tone, "Some secret oppresses you. Gemma. Why not take me into your confidence?" "Because--well, because it is utterly impossible." "Impossible! Yet, we love one another. Is your past such a profound secret, then?" "All of us, I suppose, have our secrets, Nino," she replied earnestly. "I, like others, have mine." "Is it of such a character that I, your affianced husband, must not know?" he asked in a voice of bitter reproach. "Yes," she answered nervously. "Even to you, the man I love, I am unable to divulge the strange story which must remain locked for ever within my heart." "Then you have no further confidence in me?"