"Then I have not succeeded in raising one throb of interest in your breast?"
She opened her lips and his heart stood still for her answer, but she closed them again and remained standing so long with her hands locked together and her face downcast, that his hopes revived again, and he was about to put in another plea for her hand when she looked up and said firmly:
"I think you ought to know that my heart does not respond to your suit. It may make any disappointment which you feel less lasting."
He uttered a low exclamation and stepped back.
"I beg your pardon," said he, "I ought not to have annoyed you. You will forget my folly, I hope."
"Do you forget it!" cried she; but her lips trembled and he saw it.
"Hermione! Hermione!" he murmured, and was down at her feet before she could prevent it. "Oh, how I love you!" he breathed, and kissed her hand wildly, passionately.
XII.
HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN?
Frank Etheridge left the presence of Hermione Cavanagh, carrying with him an indelible impression of her slender, white-robed figure and pallid, passion-drawn face. There was such tragedy in the latter, that he shuddered at its memory, and stopped before he reached the gate to ask himself if the feeling she displayed was for him or another. If for another, then was that other Dr. Sellick, and as the name formed itself in his thoughts, he felt the dark cloud of jealousy creep over his mind, obscuring the past and making dangerous the future.