“Dream on!” I answered, sadly; “if I only had the power to dream also!”
“Why, what is the matter, Zana, your eyes are full of tears?” she cried, looking eagerly in my face, and kissing it with passionate devotion. “Where have you been?”
“I have been to see him, Cora.”
She held her breath, and looked at me—oh, how pleadingly—as if I could change the color of her fate, poor child.
“Well, Zana.”
I could not endure that voice, those eyes, but flung my arms around her, and held her close to my bosom as I answered—
“Forget him, Cora. Let us both forget him. He is an ingrate, a”——
I could not go on, for her cold lips were pressed wildly to mine, and she called out—
“Don’t, don’t, Zana—don’t speak such words of him!”
“He does not deserve this interposition, Cora; you cannot guess how much I was ready to sacrifice that you and he might be happy.”