"I do not know what I am capable of in that direction. I promise that,
for your sake, I will not attempt to do him any injury."

"God bless you for that promise! I have so dreaded the chance of a
meeting between you two. It has often been the thought of that which has
made me unhappy when that faithful girl, Nelly, has noticed my low
spirits. You have removed a great weight from my mind."

"And you will trust me better after that promise?"

"Yes; I will trust you as you deserve to be trusted, with all my heart."

"And now, good-bye. It is a hard word for me to say; but I must not
detain you here in the cold."

He bent his head, and pressed his lips upon the slender little hand which
held the key of the gate. In the next moment he was outside that tall
iron barrier; and it seemed to him as if he were leaving Marian in a
prison. The garden, with its poor pale scentless autumn flowers, had a
dreary look under the dull gray sky. He thought of the big empty house,
with its faded traces of vanished splendour, and of Marian's lonely life
in it, with unspeakable pain. How different from the sunny home which he
had dreamed of in the days gone by--the happy domestic life which he had
fancied they two might lead!

"And she loves this man well enough to endure the dullest existence for
his sake," he said to himself as he turned his back at last upon the tall
iron gate, having lingered there for some minutes after Marian had
re-entered the house. "She could forget all our plans for the future at