“Poor little woman!” he said.
She clung to him, sobbing and weeping in his embrace.
“Oh! I can’t,” she wailed... “I can’t.”
Again the light of victory shone in the man’s eyes. He held her more closely.
“No,” he said; “we couldn’t do it... Never to meet again! ... We couldn’t do it, dear.”
She drew back from his embrace and, seating herself in the chair, continued to weep hopelessly. He fell on his knees beside her.
“I’m a brute to have brought this on you,” he muttered. “But I loved you so... Dearest heart, say you forgive me.”
He caught her wrists and pulled her hands from her face and kissed the tear-drenched eyes.
“Pamela, my darling, forgive me. I meant no harm to you. I never meant you to know.”
She regarded him with brimming eyes.