"Precious, you pretend to love me, and now I will prove your love. All your life you have robbed me with those sunny blue eyes of the love that should have been mine. Do you wish to atone, to press all this jealous anger from my breast and make me happy again? Then I will tell you how. You know that I have lost my lover, that I discarded him rashly, unjustly, in pride and anger. He is too proud to sue for a reconciliation, yet I cannot live without him. It was jealous madness that made me throw him over, and now I repent my folly, I yearn to be reconciled to my darling." Her burning hand clasped her sister's icy fingers. "He loves me, I know he loves me, but he is too proud to come back to me unless I send for him. And I--oh, I am proud, too; I would fain be forgiven without the asking! Oh, what shall I do?" There was no answer. Precious sat upright with her elbow on the pillow. It seemed to her that she could hear beneath it her lover's letter rustling like a live thing under her touch, like a human heart. Words failed her, she was speechless with a hovering despair. Ethel flung back the heavy masses of her rich black hair from her pale, convulsed face, crying wildly: "Don't let me frighten you, Precious, but I must confide in you or my heart will break. Oh, what a night of anguish I have spent! Not a moment have I slept, and all the while suffering anguish inconceivable in my bitter jealousy of another girl." She saw the wild start that Precious gave, and continued: "They tell me Arthur is calling on another girl--a dark-eyed beauty down in the village. It is only in pique, I know; but what if this Aura Stanley wins him from me? Hearts are often caught in the rebound, they say. Oh, Precious, how I should hate any girl that won Arthur's heart from me! I should hate her, and in my despair and jealousy I would be certain to commit suicide." "Oh, sister, sister!" cried Precious, horrified; but Ethel persisted wildly: "I should be sure to do it, for I could not lose my love and live. But I will not give him up. He is mine, mine, and he must forgive me and come back to me." Precious saw the great dark eyes flash luridly, and shuddered with the consciousness of the love-letter under her pillow. "You can help me, Precious," cried Ethel coaxingly. "You can send for Lord Chester to come to you. You are such a child still that it will not seem strange for you to plead your sister's cause with him. You can tell him all I have confessed to you--my love, my jealousy, my repentance. You can beg him to return to me and save my heart from breaking. Will you do this for me, my little sister? Then we shall be at peace with each other." CHAPTER XXIII. "SWEETHEART, GOOD-BY!" "Your trembling tones were low and deep; We smiled, we laughed, lest we should weep; Then parted for dear Honor's sake, For Honor's sake--for Honor's sake-- That spot is dear for Honor's sake, 'Twas there our hearts began to break."