Oh, why had he found her here? why had they met again, only to part in despair? Better if he had gone on believing her dead, as she would, alas! be soon. No thought came to her that it might be best to confess all to Dorian, and ask him to help her out of her terrible strait. She did not know that anything but death could absolve her from her wifely vows to her husband. She understood his malignant nature well enough to know that he would pursue her to the ends of the earth if she tried to escape him. And in her stainless purity she would sooner have died than seek refuge from him in Dorian's arms. "Oh, Dorian, Dorian, it breaks my heart to tell you," she sobbed; "but--but our marriage was all a mistake, I--I can never be your wife." "Are you going mad, my darling? You are my wife already, you know," he replied wonderingly. "No, Dorian, no; it was all a mistake, I tell you. I told you always that I could never marry you while my guardian lived. Captain Van Hise told me that night that he was dead, and so I consented to be married. But there was a mistake. Mr. Farnham was not dead. He lives--he claims me--so I cannot be yours." Dorian Mountcastle laughed at her childish fears. "His death or his life makes no difference now," he replied soothingly. "You belong to me alone, and no power on earth can take you from me. Perhaps he has some hold on your fortune. Is that what you mean? Let him have every penny, Nita. I have enough." "Dorian, words are useless. I never can be yours. We must part." He looked at her in amazement. He grew impatient at what he considered a silly whim. "I do not understand all these silly fancies, Nita," he burst out angrily. "Perhaps you have ceased to love me, perhaps you have repented our marriage--is it so?" "Yes, I repent it," she replied despairingly. A flood of jealous rage poured like molten lava through his veins. "You have met some one you love better?" he cried, in a voice so strange from excess of keen emotion that it did not sound like his own. "No; ah, no, my love, my Dorian," she moaned, and suddenly flung herself at his feet. "Oh, I love you. I love you. I love you," she cried passionately, as she knelt there with upraised eyes. Startled by her emotion, he stooped to raise her, but she resisted the effort. "No; let me kneel here humbly at your feet and thank you for your love while I implore your pardon for my weakness," she sobbed. "Oh, Dorian, there can never be any happiness for us, dearest, while Charles Farnham lives. If he were dead--if he were only dead--we might be happy. I wish that he had died that night when he was hurt. Oh, Dorian, he holds a power over me that you do not dream of. We must part, my own dear love, we must go our ways in life alone unless----" She paused a moment, and searched his face with eager eyes. "Ah, Dorian, do you love me very, very much?" she sighed. "Better than the whole world, better than my own soul!" he answered fervently.