She tottered forward with wild eyes, under the influence of her own thought. He caught her and supported her in his arms.
“That shows you, my poor girl, that if there are unkind hands behind you, there are still some hands that are ready to keep your feet from slipping. There are hands that will hold you back from that precipice, or else those who hold them out to you will go over the brink with you. Ah, my dear, dear girl, nothing can happen to make you despair. In another year—perhaps in another month—you will wonder how you could ever have taken so gloomy a view of the present hour.”
A gleam of hope came into her eyes. Only for an instant it remained there, however. Then she shook her head, saying—
“Alas! Alas!”
She seated herself once more, but he retained her hand in one of his own, laying his other caressingly on her head.
“You are surely the sweetest girl that ever lived,” said he. “You fill with your sweetness the world through which I walk. I do not say that it would be a happiness for me to die for you, for you know that if my dying could save you from your trouble I would not shrink from it. What I do say is that I should like to live for you—to live to see happiness once again brought to you. And yet you will tell me nothing—you will not give me a chance of helping you.”
She shook her head sadly.
“I dare not—I dare not,” she said. “I dare not run the chance of forfeiting your regard forever.”
“Good-bye,” he said after a pause.
He felt her fingers press his own for a moment; then he dropped her hand and walked toward the door. Suddenly, however, he returned to her.