Isabel cast one sorrowful look at her lover, and feeling her eyes grow misty as they met his, turned away.
"I will go now," she said, in a hollow voice, and, with a heart that lay heavy and burning like heated lead in her bosom, she left the room.
Young Farnham followed her, pale and anxious.
"Isabel, sweet Isabel! you cannot be in earnest!"
"Miserably in earnest!" she answered, staggering blindly forward, for a faintness crept over her.
He caught her in his arms.
"I knew—I knew it could not be! you have no strength to put this cruel threat in force against me."
"Don't—oh! don't, I am faint, my heart is breaking—let me go while I can!"
She clung to him as she spoke, and rested her head wearily on his shoulder, as he strained her closer to his heart.
"Oh, my Isabel, you love me, you have told me so now for the first time, with the very lips that renounce me for ever. You love me, Isabel!"