“Dora, do you not know that that marriage ceremony can be set aside now if you so will it. If you will only give yourself to me, I will devote my life to your service until you are free.”
“Nay—nay, my kind friend, you would but wreck my life then——”
“The fates forbid!” he interrupted, fervently.
“For,” she went on, “I love Robbie Ellerton still. Strange though it may seem, when that evil-minded man made us man and wife, I gave myself wholly to him. My love has grown with the growth of years, and I feel that naught but death can ever break the link that binds us.”
“But, Dora, were you free—forgive me, but I must know—if by any chance death should set you free, would you give yourself to me?”
He bent over her, holding his very breath, and his heart beat almost to suffocation as he waited for her answer, for upon it depended his last and only hope.
“Fredrich—Mr. Weimher, I beg—I entreat you will not harbor such a thought for an instant,” she said, wildly. “He will not die—he shall not die. It cannot be that I have loved him all these long years for naught. It would shroud my life in a night of wild despair. No, he promised he would come and claim me, and I feel—I know he will. Yes, I am Robert Ellerton’s bride, and his alone will I be, whether it be a bride of life or of death.”
He buried his face in his hands, and she could see the bright tears trickling through his fingers and falling at his feet.
The sight of his sorrow recalled her to herself.
“Fredrich,” said she, almost tenderly, “forgive me, but I must tell you the truth, and it is best you should know the worst at once. Go and seek some one fairer and more worthy your love than I, and from my heart I will say Heaven bless you.”