"'What are you going to do?' she cried. 'Why are you leaning over the Devil's Cauldron like that?'
"I had not wished to see her or to say good-by to any one. But now, that by some unaccountable chance she had come upon me, in my desperation I would give her one kiss before I went to my doom.
"'Emma,' I exclaimed, meeting her look without any sharp sense of shame, 'life is not as promising for me as it is for you; life is not promising for me at all, so I seek to end it.'
"The horror in her eyes deepened. The grasp on my arm became like that of a man.
"'You are mad,' she cried. 'You do not know what you are doing. What has happened to drive you to a deed like this? I—I thought—' and here she stammered and lost for the moment her self-control—'that you seemed very happy last night.'
"'I was,' I cried. 'I did not know then what a blighted creature I was. I thought some one might be brought to love me, even with this frightful, hideous scar on my face. But I know now that I am mistaken; that no man will ever overlook this; that I must live a lonely life, a suffering life; and I have not the strength or the courage to do so. I—I might have been beautiful,' I cried, 'but——'
"Her face, suddenly distorted by the keenest pain, drew my attention, even at that moment of immeasurable woe, and made me stop and say in less harsh and embittered tones:
"'No one will miss me very much, so do not seek to stop me.'
"Her head fell forward, her eyes sought the ground, but she did not loosen her hold on my arm. Instead of that, it tightened till it felt like a band of steel.
"'You have left a letter there,' she murmured, allowing her eyes to wander fearfully towards it. 'Was it to me? to our father?'