"Then you really intend to abandon me?" she asked very gravely, her small hand trembling. "I have already explained my intentions. They were quite clear, I think." "And you decline to reconsider them?" "They admit of no reconsideration," he answered briefly. "Very well then, adieu," she said in a cold and bitter voice, for in those few moments her manner had changed, and she was now a frigid, imperious woman with a heart of stone. "Adieu, Claudia," he said, bending with a stiff courtliness over the hand she had extended to him. "You will one day see that this step of mine has saved us both from degradation and ruin. Good-bye. Recollect that even though we are apart, I remain still, as I have ever been, your devoted friend." Her hand dropped limply from his grasp as she stood there like a beautiful statue in the centre of the room. With a final glance at her he turned and walked straight out. For a moment after the door had closed, she still remained in the same position in which he had left her. Then, in a sudden frenzy of uncontrollable passion, she hooked her nervous fingers in her chiffons and tore them into shreds. "He has defied me!" she exclaimed wildly, bursting into a flood of hot tears. "He has defied me, and cast me off--_me, who love him_!" CHAPTER FIVE. DESCRIBES AN ENGLISH HOME. Three miles from the long white road that runs between sedate old Shrewsbury and the town of Wellington, there stood a prominent object in the landscape, high upon a wooded hill to the right. It was the ancient castle of Wroxeter, one of the best preserved and most historic of the Norman castles of England. Seen through the trees, golden in their autumn tints, it was an imposing grey pile, rich in turrets with narrow windows, whence, long ago, archers had showered their shafts, but which were now half concealed by an evergreen mantle. Closer inspection showed that it was a fortress no longer. The old moat, once fed from the winding Severn close by, was now a well-kept garden with gravelled walks and trees cut into fantastic shapes, while around the building were level lawns sweeping away to the great park beyond.