The governor had left town; he never intended to see us! To reach this end--when nothing can be done--" Her eyes grew wide with horror.
He drew her closer, and touched her cold lips with his.
"There is one thing you can do that will be a comfort to me, Elizabeth; let your father take you home!" "No, no, I must stay till morning, until the day breaks--don't send me away, John!" she entreated.
"It will be easier--" Yet his arms still held her close to him, and he gazed down into the upturned face that rested against his breast.

It was his keen sense of her suffering that weighed on him now.

What a wreck he had made of her life--what infinite compassion and pity he felt! He held her closer.
"What is it, dear ?" she asked.
But he could not translate his feeling into words.
"Oh, if there were only something we could do!" she moaned.
"Through all these weeks you have given me hope and strength! You say that I am brave! Your love and devotion have lifted me out of myself; I would be ashamed to be a coward when I think of all you have endured!" He felt her shiver in his arms, then in the momentary silence the court-house bell struck the half-hour.
"I thought it was later," she said, as the stroke of the bell died out in the stillness.
"It is best that you should leave this place, dearest--" "Don't send me from you, John--I can not bear that yet--" she implored.
Pityingly and tenderly his eyes looked deep into hers.

What had she not endured for his sake! And the long days of effort had terminated in this last agony of disappointment; but now, and almost mercifully, he felt the fruitless struggle was ended.

All that remained was the acceptance of an inexorable fate.