"True,--you can wait, Mavis Clare!" he said in deep clear tones from which all sadness had fled--"You can afford to wait! Tell me,--think for a moment!--can you remember me? Is there a time on which you can look back, and looking, see my face, not here but elsewhere? Think! Did you ever see me long ago--in a far sphere of beauty and light, when you were an Angel, Mavis,--and I was--not what I am now! How you tremble! You need not fear me,--I would not harm you for a thousand worlds! I talk wildly at times I know;--I think of things that are past,--long long past,--and I am filled with regrets that burn my soul with fiercer heat than fire! And so neither world's wealth, world's power, nor world's love will tempt you, Mavis!--and you,--a woman! You are a living miracle then,--as miraculous as the drop of undefiled dew which reflects in its tiny circumference all the colours of the sky, and sinks into the earth sweetly, carrying moisture and refreshment where it falls. I can do nothing for you--you will not have my aid--you reject my service? Then as I may not help you, you must help _me_!"--and dropping before her, he reverently took her hand and kissed it--"I ask a very little thing of you,--pray for me! I know you are accustomed to pray, so it will be no trouble to you,--_you_ believe God hears you,--and when I look at you, _I_ believe it too. Only a pure woman can make faith possible to man. Pray for me then, as one who has fallen from his higher and better self,--who strives, but who may not attain,--who labours under heavy punishment,--who would fain reach Heaven, but who by the cursëd will of man, and man alone, is kept in Hell! Pray for me, Mavis Clare! promise it!--and so shall you lift me a step nearer the glory I have lost!" I listened, petrified with amazement. Could this be Lucio?--the mocking, careless, cynical scoffer I knew, as I thought, so well?--was it really he who knelt thus like a repentant sinner, abasing his proud head before a woman? I saw Mavis release her hand from his, the while she stood looking down upon him in alarm and bewilderment. Presently she spoke in sweet yet tremulous accents-- "Since you desire it so earnestly, I promise,"--she said--"I will pray that the strange and bitter sorrow which seems to consume you may be removed from your life----"