"Will you give me, before I go to Europe, that figure you showed me?"
"I will give you any thing you ask," he answered; "I wish I might add myself. Is it right," he added, with sudden fire, "for me to tie myself to that model girl? Am I worth nothing better than that?"
"You are worth the best woman on earth; but—oh I cannot argue it, but I feel it; I am sure that it cannot be right to deny the claim which you yourself gave her, Grant. I know by myself what it would be to lose you."
"But she is not the woman you are. Her feelings are those of an ignorant peasant; she—"
Helen laid her fingers lightly upon his lips.
"No," she said, "don't go on. We have said it all once. You are trying to out-argue your own convictions. I must go now. It is almost dark already."
She took a step or two towards the door and again laid her hand upon the rug portiêre. Then as by a common impulse they turned towards each other, and once more she was locked in his embrace.
And to-night, sitting alone in the dark, with dilated eyes, Helen felt still the ecstasy of that moment, but murmured to herself:
"It must not be again; I will not see him alone."