It is not fair--not just, if you only knew!" Then he continued wildly.

"Ah, God--and it is all because I forgot the meaning of your dear and sacred, pledge with me that I must always be good and true! If I could suffer alone--my darling, my soul!--then I would go without a word back to hell, if you sent me.

But you, too--think, Halcyone! Can you bear your life?
You who are so young, separated for evermore from love and me.

Oh! my own, my own--" Here he stopped his mad rush of words--her face was so white and grave--and he let her draw herself from him, and put her hands upon his shoulders, while her eyes, with tender stars of purity melting in their depths, gazed into his.
"John," she said, "do not try to weaken me.

All Nature, who is my friend, and the night-winds and their voices, and that dear God Who never deserts me, tell me that for no present good must we lower ourselves now.