I am at the present, and shall be for a little longer, constrained by duties and obligations put upon me by others, and for others, and to which I am pledged by the most sacred promises--given not only by myself, but by others--and which I must not forgo.

These forbid me to do as I wish.

Oh, trust me, my beloved--my husband!" She held out her hands appealingly.

The moonlight, falling through the thinning forest, showed her white cerements.

Then the recollection of all she must have suffered--the awful loneliness in that grim tomb in the Crypt, the despairing agony of one who is helpless against the unknown--swept over me in a wave of pity.