Her slender figure swayed a little, and she leaned against the mantelpiece.
"My God!" he said, with a fresh clenching of his strong hands, "I would not have believed I could have suffered so.

As it is the last time we shall ever talk to one another perhaps--I want you to know about things--to hear it all.

I would like to ask you again to forgive me for long ago, but I suppose you feel that is past forgiveness ?" His face had a look of pleading; then he went on as she did not respond.

"If you had not left me, I would soon have made you forget that you had been angry, as I thought indeed I had already done when you seemed to be contented at least in my arms.

But I would have caressed you into complete forgetfulness in time--" here his voice vibrated with a deep note of tenderness, which thrilled her--but yet she could not speak.
"And what had begun just in mad passion would have grown into real love between us--for we were made for one another Sabine--did you never think of that ?--just the same sort of natures--vigorous and all alive and passionate, with the same joy of life in our blood.