Ah! I will make it better; I will try to make it as near an angel's life as a woman can; and I will do no wrong, but only good; and I will believe, and pray every day upon my knees--and all my prayers will be that I may so live that my dear lord--my Gerald--could forgive me all that I have ever done--and seeing my soul, would know me worthy of him.
Oh! we are strange things, we human creatures, Anne," with a tremulous smile; "we do not believe until we want a thing, and feel that we shall die if 'tis not granted to us; and then we kneel and kneel and believe, because we _must_ have somewhat to ask help from." "But all help has been given to you," poor tender Anne said, kissing her hand again; "and I will pray, I will pray--" "Ay, pray, Anne, pray with all thy soul," Clorinda answered; "I need thy praying--and thou didst believe always, and have asked so little that has been given thee." "Thou wast given me, sister," said Anne.

"Thou hast given me a home and kindness such as I never dared to hope; thou hast been like a great star to me--I have had none other, and I thank Heaven on my knees each night for the brightness my star has shed on me." "Poor Anne, dear Anne!" Clorinda said, laying her arms about her and kissing her.

"Pray for thy star, good, tender Anne, that its light may not be quenched." Then with a sudden movement her hand was pressed upon her bosom again.

"Ah, Anne," she cried, and in the music of her voice, agony itself was ringing--"Anne, there is but one thing on this earth God rules over--but one thing that belongs--_belongs_ to me; and 'tis Gerald Mertoun--and he is mine and _shall_ not be taken from me, for he is a part of me, and I a part of him!" "He will not be," said Anne--"he will not." "He cannot," Clorinda answered--"he shall not! 'Twould not be human." She drew a long breath and was calm again.
"Did it reach your ears," she said, reclasping a band of jewels on her arm, "that John Oxon had been offered a place in a foreign Court, and that 'twas said he would soon leave England ?" "I heard some rumour of it," Anne answered, her emotion getting the better of her usual discreet speech.

"God grant it may be true!" "Ay!" said Clorinda, "would God that he were gone!" But that he was not, for when she entered the assembly that night he was standing near the door as though he lay in waiting for her, and his eyes met hers with a leaping gleam, which was a thing of such exultation that to encounter it was like having a knife thrust deep into her side and through and through it, for she knew full well that he could not wear such a look unless he had some strength of which she knew not.
This gleam was in his eyes each time she found herself drawn to them, and it seemed as though she could look nowhere without encountering his gaze.
He followed her from room to room, placing himself where she could not lift her eyes without beholding him; when she walked a minuet with a royal duke, he stood and watched her with such a look in his face as drew all eyes towards him.
"'Tis as if he threatens her," one said.