“Helen, I repeat, we are about to part: you cannot have met me to tell me that the love you have declared for me, the love which you have proved, and which I have, oh! so fondly, so dearly cherished, has faded suddenly away at a moment, and you wish that the separation commencing now should last for ever? You dare not do it!”
“Oh! no, no, Hugh, no!” she cried earnestly.
“Helen!” he ejaculated, in low but deep tones, as though his very existence depended upon her answer, “you have, as I believe, proved to me that you loved me; you love me still, do you not?”
“Oh! yes, yes, Hugh,” she returned, with fervour, “I do, indeed, Hugh, love you with my whole soul.”
She sank upon his breast, and he pressed his lips to hers, passionately.
At this instant there was the sound of a footstep upon the gravel path.
She sprang from his embrace.
“For Heaven’s sake, be silent!” she whispered.
She turned her eyes in the direction of the advancing footsteps, and saw, approaching the spot where she stood with her companion, the Honorable Lester Vane.