"Yes, I will save you, save you from yourself; you have lost yourself, and I will restore you."
She lifted her head and looked at him, confused, questioning.
"Not to-day, my sweet child, to-morrow; but you must be a good and obedient girl."
"I will do all that you wish, that you command, dear one, beloved one! For there is none as good, as noble as you, not one, and I love no one as I love you!"
Again she clasped him, more violently even than before, and pressed her hot, quivering lips, to his.
But he did not return her kiss, and a gentle, melancholy smile played about his mouth as he said, putting her gently from him, and stroking her dark hair--
"And never did father love his dearest child better than I love you."
And again she gazed up to him with a strange expression of fear and shame.
"Now go, my child; to-morrow we will talk together. I shall not leave to-morrow. I shall not go until you need me no longer. Good-bye till then. And then your dear eyes are to weep no more."
She clung to him still, but hesitatingly, shyly now; he disengaged himself gently, and repeated--