"When we are settled in Australia," he pleaded earnestly, "we will write to your parents and send them money to come out and join us."
"Father is paralysed. How could he come? And mother would curse me. And a mother's curse, Andor, is registered by God."
"Elsa, if you loved me you would leave father and mother and come with me."
"Then perhaps I do not love you, Andor," she said slowly, "for I could not bear my mother's curse, I could not break the pledge which I swore after Holy Communion! I could not commit so great a sin, Andor, not even for your sake, for if I did remorse would break my heart, and all your love for me would not compensate me for the sin."
And before he could say another word, before his arms could once more close round her or his trembling hands clutch at her fluttering petticoats, she was gone—vanished out of his grasp and into the darkness, and only the patter of her little feet broke the silence of the night.
CHAPTER XXV
"In any case Elsa is not for you."
Andor with a sigh of heartbroken disappointment now turned to go into the inn. He had the key in his hand which my lord the young count had given him with a careless laugh and a condescending nod of acknowledgment for the service thus rendered to him and to Klara.