She looked up with such agony on her face, that the very sight of it made him recoil a step backward. “Anna, my poor, dear girl, what is this that has come between us?” “I don’t know. Ask—ask——No, you must not ask any one. You and I must never speak to each other again—never! never! never!” The voice broke off in a faint wail, so full of pain, that it made the young man shiver. “But we can and will speak together. Who shall prevent it?” “I must.” “You, Anna? This is madness. Some trouble has driven you wild.” “No, I am not wild, nor wicked enough to break a sacred promise.” “A sacred promise? Who exacted this promise?” “One who had a right?” “One who had a right! Who on earth has any right over you, Anna Burns? Are you not in every thing but words my betrothed wife?” “I was—I was!” cried the poor girl, wringing her hands in piteous distress. “But every thing is changed.” A flash of the old suspicion came over Savage; he strode across the room, and seizing Anna by the wrist, drew her with gentle violence through the door. “Look me in the face, Anna Burns, and say, if you have the courage, that this change is in yourself.” She cast a piteous look into his face, and strove to force her hand from his grasp. “Girl! Girl! Has your heart become so false that it dares not look through your eyes?” “It is breaking! It is breaking!” she cried, desperately yielding her feeble strength to his. “Breaking? For what—for whom?” “You wound it so. Every one I meet gives it a blow.” “I wound it? Girl! Girl! Two days ago I would have died to save you an hour’s pain!” “But now you hate, you despise me!” moaned the poor young creature, giving him one look that went to his heart. “Why should you think so, Anna? If you have done nothing to earn hate or contempt, how could the idea enter your heart?” “I—I cannot tell. I can tell you nothing, Mr. Savage, only that I have made a promise, and must keep it.” Savage grasped her hand so fiercely that it pained her. “Girl, answer me. Was that promise made to Mr. Ward?” “Mr. Ward?” Her face became instantly crimson with flashing blood. “Mr. Ward? Who told you? Who—who——‘ She remembered her second promise to Mrs. Savage in time, and grew coldly white again. “Those who know him to be under the same roof with you told me, Anna. If you could only know how I have reproached myself for believing them.” “But you must believe them,” she said. The words fell from her lips sharp and cold, like hailstones on frozen snow. She shivered under his eye, and made another, wild effort to release herself. But he held her in an iron grasp. “Anna, do you love that man?” His voice was low and hoarse; his eyes were full of passionate pleading; all his pride was forgotten then. He was a man pleading for the very life of his love. “Do you love that man?” “Oh! let me go! I pray of you let me go!” “Not till you answer me, Anna.” “What was it you asked me to say?” she faltered, humbly.