'Mr. Murden,' said she, as she pressed his hand, 'you have been very kind to me—tell me how I can thank you?'
'You were once unkind to me,' replied Murden, sobbing,—'you hated me! you shunned me!'
'True, for I did not know you.——Yet, I fancied myself infallibly discerning.' She turned her head away.
'Oh do not, do not turn from me!—Miss Valmont, I once talked with you in the Ruin—Do you remember it?'
'Yes.—You were not so ill then, as you are now.'
'And you, Miss Valmont, was well.'
'I did think so,' she said, and sighed.
Murden comprehended the fullest force of her meaning. He looked wildly around the apartment. 'Let me go, let me go,' said he eagerly, withdrawing his hand from Sibella and attempting to rise. I beckoned in his two attendants, who lifted him from his seat.
'Will you go, and not bid me farewel, Murden?' asked Sibella.
He started at the plaintive tone.—'Stand off!' cried he, 'would ye dare take me from her ere my errand is completed?'