"I have suffered a great deal.

And your tears----" "My tears! They will avail me nothing," says she bitterly.

"When _you_ have forsaken me, what is left ?" _ "Have_ I forsaken you ?" He pauses, as if to control the agitation that is threatening to overcome him.

"When all I cared for was lost to me," he goes on presently, his eyes upon the ground, "when you had told me that marriage between us was impossible, then one thing remained, and one only--ambition.

The old place had been ours for two centuries--it had its claim on me.