The intervening time between past and present closed up for him, and moved by an impulse which he had combated for fifteen years, he seized her two hands and drew her towards him.
She started back, and became almost a mere acquaintance.

'I have to tell you,' she gasped, 'that I have--been married.' Nicholas's rose-coloured dream was immediately toned down to a greyish tinge.
'I did not marry till many years after you had left,' she continued in the humble tones of one confessing to a crime.

'Oh Nic,' she cried reproachfully, 'how could you stay away so long ?' 'Whom did you marry ?' 'Mr.Bellston.' 'I--ought to have expected it.' He was going to add, 'And is he dead ?' but he checked himself.

Her dress unmistakably suggested widowhood; and she had said she was free.
'I must now hasten home,' said she.

'I felt that, considering my shortcomings at our parting so many years ago, I owed you the initiative now.' 'There is some of your old generosity in that.