"You!"
Claude seemed overwhelmed at this revelation; finally he said, "But you know it is impossible!"
"Why?"
He did not reply, so she continued:
"Because I have loved you? Your step-son knows it; that is, he knows that I have loved before. He forgave me, for he has a noble heart. So I can never marry? My life is to be blasted for ever? I can not marry a man that I, at least, esteem and admire? But how will he ever know you were my first love? You are incapable of the cowardice of betraying my secret, and no one else knows it."
"But it would be wrong to marry the son, after having loved the father."
She parted her hair which had fallen over her pale face, and, gazing fixedly at him, said:
"After having loved you? I love you still! I have struggled to forget, but in vain. The thought of you is always gnawing, gnawing at my heart. At the idea of becoming your daughter, I shouted in my joy, for I was saved! Duty will succeed where every thing else has failed, and I shall be free from this disgraceful love which is my despair!"
As her dark eyes flamed in their anguish, Claude hesitated, then repeated:
"This marriage shall never take place."