More and more aghast grew Ian! What was to be done? What was to be said? What was left for a man to do, when a woman laid her soul before him? Was there nothing but a lie to save her from bitterest humiliation? To refuse any woman was to Ian a hard task; once he had found it impossible to refuse even where he could not give, and had let a woman take his soul! Thank God, she took it indeed! he yielded himself perfectly, and God gave him her in return! But that was once, and for ever! It could not be done again! "I am very sorry!" he murmured; and the words and their tone sent a shiver through the heart of Christina. But now that she had betrayed her secret, the pent up tide of her phantasy rushed to the door. She was reckless. Used to everything her own way, knowing nothing of disappointment, a new and ill understood passion dominating her, she let everything go and the torrent sweep her with it. Passion, like a lovely wild beast, had mastered her, and she never thought of trying to tame it. It was herself! there was not enough of her outside the passion to stand up against it! She began to see the filmy eyed Despair, and had neither experience to deal with herself, nor reticence enough to keep silence. "If you speak to me like that," she cried, "my heart will break!--Must you go away?" "Dear Miss Palmer,--" faltered Ian. "Oh!" she ejaculated, with a world of bitterness in the protest. "--do let us be calm!" continued Ian. "We shall not come to anything if we lose ourselves this way!" The WE and the US gave her a little hope. "How can I be calm!" she cried. "I am not cold-hearted like you!--You are going away, and I shall never see you again to all eternity!" She burst out weeping afresh. "Do love me a little before you go," she sobbed. "You gave me my life once, but that does not make it right to take it from me again! It only gives you a right to its best!" "God knows," said Ian, "if my life could serve you, I should count it a small thing to yield!--But this is idle talk! A man must not pretend anything! We must not be untrue!" She fancied he did not believe in her. "I know! I know! you may well distrust me!" she returned. "I have often behaved abominably to you! But indeed I am true now! I dare not tell you a lie. To you I MUST speak the truth, for I love you with my whole soul." Ian stood dumb. His look of consternation and sadness brought her to herself a little. "What have I done!" she cried, and drawing back a pace, stood looking at him, and trembling. "I am disgraced for ever! I have told a man I love him, and he leaves me to the shame of it! He will not save me from it! he will not say one word to take it away! Where is your generosity, Ian?" "I must be true!" said Ian, speaking as if to himself, and in a voice altogether unlike his own. "You will not love me! You hate me! You despise me! But I will not live rejected! He brushes me like a feather from his coat!"