"There is an obstacle to our happiness—is there not?"
"There is."
"And but one?"
"But one."
She raised her head a little, so as to look him full in the face, and then closing her eyes, in the way peculiar to her, suddenly flashed them upon him. In that instant he divined the diabolical thought which was in her mind, but which she did not dare to utter; he felt a sickening disgust steal over him, as this idea rushed hideously into his soul.
There was a breathless pause. He mastered his emotion as well as he could, and determined to have no possible uncertainty on the subject, but to make her avow it in all its explicitness. Collecting himself, therefore, he whispered,—
"That obstacle must be removed!"
A strange expression stole over her eyes, as she heard this, and said,—
"Have you the courage?"
He could scarcely falter out,—