“Will you come out, dear, and let me speak to you?”
“Yes,” she murmured, in a low tone; and presently she appeared, closed the door behind her, and sat down on the nearest chair. She did not wait for him to speak, but, with a dry sob, commenced:
“David Lindsay, I am a lost spirit—an evil spirit. I cannot help that. I have treated you unpardonably. I cannot help that, either—I——”
“Do not reproach yourself, dear. There is no thought in my heart that reproaches you,” he answered, gently, as he stood with his back to the window and with his eyes cast down, so that she should not see the trouble that he could not entirely banish from his face.
“Ah, but I do and must. I feel how wickedly, yes, how basely I have acted towards you, David Lindsay, and am still acting, and must still act; but I cannot help it! I cannot help anything. We must part, David Lindsay.”
“I know it, dear,” he answered, in as steady tones as he could command, for he knew her sympathetic nature, and knew how much she would suffer from compassion if she should see him suffer. “I know we must part. It would be scarcely natural, scarcely possible, that you should love me, to live with me. The ceremony of this morning must go for nothing, so far as I am concerned, but just this—to be a shield and defence about you, to protect you from your guardian’s suit and from your own heart’s weakness—that is all. When you are older and stronger, and able to do without it, the empty ceremony of this morning can be set aside, annulled—for, Gloria, the marriage rites, so sacred between souls that are already one, was but an idle and empty ceremony between you and me, and is good for nothing but a temporary defence to your helplessness. It has given me a husband’s right to protect you before the world, Gloria, but I shall use it only as a brother. As a brother, I will escort you to your own home, Gloria, and establish you there.”
“And then?” she inquired, in a voice scarcely above her breath.
“Then, dear, I will bid you good-bye, when I see you safe.”
CHAPTER XIX
LOVE WITHOUT SELF-LOVE
Stand up! Look below!