"Nay, Estella, you must hear me ere we part. The times are dangerous, and we cannot tell what may happen before we meet again. I love you as only a man can love the woman of his heart! You are my all in all! I would be the happiest man alive if you would love me in return, dearest, darling Estella? Say you will! Look into my eyes and say you will some day be my own true wife!" He caught her to his breast, and she lay on his broad bosom drinking in his passionate words silently, joyfully, her heart echoing his wishes, eager to tell him how wildly she loved him in return, longing to clasp him still tighter, to pour a wealth of kisses over his handsome face. "You don't speak, Estella," he went on. "But you are not angry--your beautiful eyes tell me that. What is the trouble? Why is your lovely face so clouded?" "Howard!" It was but a single word, yet how full of entreaty, of misery, of despair! She freed herself from his embrace and held him from her, even against the wish of her own wildly throbbing heart. "Oh, Howard, don't for my sake as well as for your own, please don't!" she cried at last. "But, Estella?" There was a gentle reproach, entreaty, nay, supplication in these tones. He strove again to embrace her, but her upraised hand made him desist. "You do not know!" she wailed at last. "You ask too much of me!" "Too much! Oh, Estella, my darling, the light of my life, don't say that! I am poor, I know, but----" "It is not that! I do not care for riches! A woman would be rich to possess the love you would give to her! But--but----" She broke down utterly. "I can never be yours, Howard!" "What!" "I can never be yours, Howard--as much as you love me, and as much as I may care for you. I am betrothed to another." "To another?" He uttered the words like one in a dream--like a man at the bar receiving the sentence of death. "You then love somebody else--you are pledged to another?" "Yes, I am to marry another man," she replied, ignoring his first question. She wanted to say more--to offer some explanation--but her poor heart was too full. Heartbroken, he looked at her in bitter silence for fully five seconds. Then he drew himself up, and a hard, cold, proud look settled over his face. "I see I was mistaken in you," he said, slowly and distinctly, in a tone that cut like the edge of a dagger. "I thought your heart was free. You were merely amusing yourself--merely flirting. Allow me to bid you good-night." He bowed and tipped his hat, then sprang for the ladder. She took a step forward, but before she could stop him he was gone--gone with a mad rage and pain in his heart--he knew not, nor cared not where. Her beautiful eyes filled with tears; she gave one mighty sob, and then, as Cara descended the ladder, to learn the cause of Estella's agitation, she fell senseless at her maid's feet. CHAPTER VII. "ASSIST ME TO GET RID OF THEM, AND I WILL REWARD YOU WELL!"