"Pamela! What have you done to yourself, my sweetheart? You are not the Pamela I left." She had turned towards him as irresistibly as the needle to the pole. But at his words a quick shiver ran through her. Her eyes turned from him and darkened. Her head drooped. "You have come too late," she said, almost under her breath; and her voice was cold. "Look at me, Pam. I have so much to tell you that you must hear. You must not be angry with me. We have been cheated and tricked. I wrote to your father to say I would come and ask for you, Pam, the road being clear." "He never had your letter." "It was not posted, Pamela. I must tell you, Pam, though it is hard. You have a right to know. My mother intercepted the letter." "She detested me. I knew it from the first moment her cold eyes rested upon me." "She does not like me, Pam, much. But that will not part us." "Ah!" said Pam, and her voice was almost a cry. "But we _are_ parted. She could not do it, but I have done it by my own act." His foot knocked against the heap of trinkets on the moss. "What are these, Pam?" he asked wonderingly. "Give them to me," she implored. "They are mine. And you must go away, Sir Anthony, and never come again." "Why, I see"--holding the jewels in his hand--"they are his gifts. But you have thrown them off!" His eyes blazed suddenly. "It is an omen, Pam. Let him follow his jewels. What right has he to buy you? You had given yourself to me." "Ah!" cried Pam, still stretching out her hands for the jewels. "You don't know what you are talking about. He is the best man in all the world; and our wedding-day is fixed, and my wedding-dress is ordered." The young man flung the jewels on the ground. [Illustration: The young man flung the jewels on the ground.] "There," he said, "let them lie where I found them. Why should we think of them? It is all a bad dream, Pamela, but not so bad as it might have been--not so bad as it might have been. Why, you are talking folly, Pam, about wedding-days and wedding-dresses. It is our wedding-day you must think of, and the wedding-dress you will wear for me." He held out his arms to her imploringly, and for a moment, with a dazed look, she seemed as if she must come. Then she pushed him off with a gesture of her two hands. "No," she said. "Love is not everything--love is not everything. There is honour, there is loyalty, there is faith. And you,--you have your cousin to think about. She is sweet and lovely. I felt it, though I----" She broke off suddenly. "Though you loved me and were jealous"; and he laughed masterfully. "All wrong, my Pam! I never cared for Kitty in that way, nor she for me. She is going to marry my chum, Jack Leslie. They have been in love with each other for years." "Your mother told me----" His face darkened. "I know. I shall forgive her when you have yielded your will to mine." "That will never be."