"Ah, well, I suppose he would not come. He felt that I was not his wife, and he was glad to cut himself clear from such an unhappy family. Has Sir Harry sent?" "May! dear May!" "I only wanted to know, Claire," said May quietly. "Don't be angry with me, dear. It's all over now. Is he better?" "I believe so. He has gone away." "Thank God!" said May fervently. Claire turned upon her with wondering eyes. "Yes," she said again. "Thank God! I should not have liked to see him again, nor to know that he had been to ask for me. I am so weak, Claire. I always--I was so different to you." Claire sighed, and bent down and kissed the white forehead, beneath which the large eyes look unnaturally bright. "That's nice," said May, with a sigh of content. "I wish I had been born such a girl as you. Always so calm and grave. I was so different. I used to feel, and I am sure of it now, that I was like one of the pretty little boats out there at sea, with the great white sails, that are blown over sometimes for want of ballast. I never had any ballast, Claire, and that made me giddy." "Had you not better be silent now, May dear?" whispered Claire. "No. Perhaps I may not be able to talk to you again, and I should like to tell you everything that is in my mind." "May, dear!" cried Claire, kissing her lovingly. "You forgive me, then?" sighed May. "I'm glad of that, for I want a deal of forgiving--here--and there," she added, after a pause. "Which may come the easier, dear, for a life spent in repenting what is past." "Yes; that would be easy, Claire, easy enough; but it is better as it is with me. I should be so weak and foolish again if I got well.--Claire." "Yes, dear." "Has poor Louis been seen again?" "No: not since that night." May lay silent for a few minutes, and then said softly: "It seems very cruel of him to strike me like that, but he had been true to me, Claire, and I was so weak I couldn't be true to him, and he is not like us; he is foreign, and loves and hates so passionately. It made him angry and mad against me. As soon as I saw him in the street, after I had written to ask Sir Harry to take me away, I knew there was danger, and I tried so hard to escape. I felt obliged then. Sir Harry had often before begged me to go, but I never would." "Hush! May, I beg of you." "No: I must talk," said May. "I will speak softly so that it shall not hurt me much; but I want to be made happy by telling you everything and getting you to freely forgive me." "I do--I do freely forgive you, everything, May, dear sister," whispered Claire, "and you must get well quickly, so that we may go far away from here, and begin life afresh." "Yes," said May, with a peculiar smile, "far away, and begin life afresh." Claire saw her peculiar look, and held her tightly to her breast.