"No--no--no! she cried, and laying her face in his lap, she burst into
a passionate flood of tears.

"Leave me," he whispered, "or I _shall_ go mad, for I know I am the
cause of this distress."

There was decision in the tones of his voice, and it stilled the
tumult in Rosamond's bosom. Rising to her feet, she said calmly: "I
will go, but I cannot forget that you deceived me. You have wrung from
me a confession of my love, only to throw it back upon me as a
priceless thing."

Not thus would he part with her, and grasping her arm, he began:
"Heaven knows how much more than my very life I love you--"

He did not finish the sentence, for through the air a small, dark
object came, and, missing its aim, dropped upon the hearth, where it
was broken in a hundred pieces. It was a vase which stood upon the
table in the hall, and Ben Van Vechten's was the hand that threw it!
Impatient at the delay, he had come up in time to hear his uncle's
last words, which aroused his Southern blood at once, and seizing the
vase, he hurled it at the offender's head--then, rushing down the
stairs, he burst upon his mother with "Great thunder! mother; Uncle
Ralph is making love to Rosamond himself, and she likes it too. I saw
it with my own eyes! I'll hang myself in the barn, or go to the
Crimean war!" and Ben bounded up and down like an India-rubber ball.
Suddenly remembering that another train was due ere long, he darted
out of the house, followed by his distracted mother, who, divining his
intention, ran swiftly after him, imploring him to return. Pausing for
a moment as he struck into the highway, he called out, "Good-by,