"Impossible!"
"I promised, and I will go back." Lady Belward's voice quivered:
"Stay, ah, stay, and redeem the past! You can, you can outlive it."
Always the same: live it down!
"It is no use," he answered; "I must return."
Then in a few words he thanked them for all, and bade them good-bye. He did not offer his hand, nor did they. But at the door he heard Lady Belward say in a pleading voice:
"Gaston!"
He returned. She held out her hand.
"You must not do as your father did," she said. "Give the woman up, and come back to us. Am I nothing to you—nothing?"
"Is there no other way?" he asked, gravely, sorrowfully.