"Mr. Fleet," she said, pleadingly, "are you too tired to take me to my old home on the north side?"
"Miss Ludolph, I could go to the ends of the earth for you, but you are not equal to this strain upon your feelings. Have mercy on yourself."
But she said, in a low, dreamy tone: "I wish to take leave to-night of my old life—the strange, sad past with its mystery of evil; and then I shall set my face resolutely toward a better life—a better country. So bear with me, my true, kind friend, a little longer."
"Believe me, my thought was all for you. All sense of fatigue has passed away."
Silently they made their way, till they stood where, a few short days before, had been the elegant home that was full of sad and painful memories to both.
"There was my studio," she said in the same dreamy tone, "where I indulged in my wild, ambitious dreams, and sought to grasp a little fading circlet of laurel, while ignoring a heavenly and an immortal crown. There," she continued, her pale face becoming crimson, even in the white moonlight, "I most painfully wronged you, my most generous, forgiving friend, and a noble revenge you took when you saved my life and led me to a Saviour. May God reward you; but I humbly ask your pardon—"
"Please, Miss Ludolph, do not speak of that. I have buried it all. Do not pain yourself by recalling that which I have forgiven and almost forgotten. You are now my ideal of all that is noble and good, and in my solitary artist life of the future you shall be my gentle yet potent inspiration."
"Why must your life be solitary in the future?" she asked, in a low tone.
He was very pale, and his arm trembled under her hand; at last he said, in a hoarse voice, "Do not ask me. Why should I pain you by telling you the truth?"
"Is it the part of a true friend to refuse confidence?" she asked, reproachfully.