"Do not give up like this to your sorrow, my darling," he said soothingly, "for I believe that the mysterious barrier to our happiness will soon be removed. I do not like to fight with shadows, Nita, so after my interview with you in London, I came to New York to see your guardian, and ask him frankly what was the secret of his objection to your marriage." "You asked him--that?" Nita faltered in an indescribable tone. "Yes, dearest, for it seemed best to know his reasons and combat them in a practical fashion." "But he did not tell you--he dare not yet!" she muttered, rather to herself than him. "He did not tell me then, but he made an appointment to meet me here to-night, the tenth of June--when he said I should hear the secret, Nita, from your own lips." He never forgot the awful look on Nita's lovely face. It was convulsed with agony and deadly fear. "To-night," she muttered hoarsely--"to-night, the tenth of June--oh, how could I forget that day--of all days in the world? And he--is coming here to-night?" The voice did not sound like her own. "Yes, Nita; and bade me meet him here with my friend, Van Hise, who went with me to see him. Mrs. Courtney told me you were in the garden, so I left my friend with her and came to seek you here. Farnham will be here presently, and soon the worst will be over. Courage, sweetheart; you are my wife, after all, and he cannot really keep us apart!" But it seemed as if she had forgotten him. Her form trembled like a reed in the wind, her eyes were fixed upon the ground, she muttered hoarsely: "It is diabolical! That old fiend has planned his triumph with cold-blooded malice! How he will exult in my shame and despair! I cannot bear it--no, no, no!" And with the spring of a startled fawn, Nita flew past her lover, a vanishing white shape, toward the garden-gate. Dorian stood like one stunned a moment, then followed in swift pursuit. But he was suddenly arrested by an outstretched arm. "Where are you flying to, Dorian?" demanded Captain Van Hise, who had just come out to look for his friend. "Do not detain me, Van Hise. I am following Nita, who has just fled from me in some strange alarm. She went out at the garden-gate. Come! let us pursue her, for I fear her terrors will lead her into something dreadful," faltered Dorian, dragging his friend with him in pursuit of the flying girl. But the slight delay had given her the advantage of them. She flew like the wind along the sands, flying from the degradation that she could not face, flying to seek refuge in the deep, dark sea from her wretched life and its crowding ills. They could never have overtaken her, she had gained too much the start of them, and terror lent wings to her feet, but--suddenly she stumbled and fell prostrate over an inert body lying directly in her path. In her frenzied flight she had not perceived it, but now--now, as she struggled to rise again, a startled cry shrilled over her lips.