I  seek  not  to  refer  to  the  past,  though
that  past  is  never  absent  from  my  memory;  but  you  may
imagine  it  cost  me  some  resolution  to  come  here  to-day,  when
I  tell  you  that  I  had  rather  have  seen  you  lying  dead  before  my
eyes,  feeling  towards  you  as  I  felt  one  short  year  ago,  than  be-
hold you  surrounded  by  the  luxuries  of  wealth — knowing  as  I
do  that  you  have  obtained  them  by  the  sacrifice  of  all  that  is
lovable  in  woman,  by  sinning  against  all  your  best  and  noblest
impulses,  by  forfeiting  all  that  renders  life  aught  but  one  weary,
endless  round  of  cares  and  duties  !  To  look  on  you  as  you  are
now — to  read,  as  I  can  read,  in  every  feature  of  your  counten-
ance, which,  though  a  sealed  book  to  others,  I  have  studied  too
long  not  to  decipher  at  a  glance,  traces  of  that  desolation  of
heart  which  you  have  prepared  for  yourself — to  see  you  thus,
and  to  know  that  I  am  powerless  to  help  you,  and  that  you
must  sustain  the  burden  of  such  an  existence  unaided,  is  to  me
bitter  pain,  and  I  have  avoided  this  house  as  though  it  were
plague-stricken. But  as  I  sat  through  the  long  hours  last  night,
striving  to  weigh  dispassionately  the  past  and  present,  I  arrived
at  the  conclusion  that  even  yet  I  owed  you  a  duty,  and  I  came
here  to-day  actuated  only  by  a  desire  to  warn  you,  and  to  save
you  from  a  fate,  to  contemplate  the  mere  possibility  of  which


AND  ALL  THAT  CAME  OF  IT  303

inspires  me  witli  horror. I  came,  regardless  of  my  own  feelings,
forgetful  of  my  wrongs,  to  do  you  a  benefit ;  and  now  you  close
your  soul  against  me,  and  receive  me  with  hard  words  and  cold
looks  !     Kate,  I  have  not  deserved  this  at  your  hands  ! '

'  But,  indeed — belieVe  me  you  are  mistaken,'  replied  Kate,
eagerly ;  '  I  appreciate  and  thank  you  for  the  interest  you  still
take  in  one  who,  as  you  truly  say,  has  forfeited  every  claim
on  your  regard  ;  but  your  fears  and  suspicions  are  groundless
— the  intimate  footing  Mr  D'Almayne  has  attained  in  this
house  is  merely  a  natural  consequence  of  the  trust  Mr  Crane
reposes  in  him. 