She sighed again, but no word escaped her. She was, I knew, reflecting upon those blissful days and nights when we met here and there at all hours and at all the best houses in Brussels, dining, lunching, dancing, and gossiping—together always.
“Will you not resolve to forget the past, Yolande?” I asked fervently, taking her hand in mine again. “Come, tell me that you will—that you will not hold me aloof like this? I cannot bear it—indeed I can’t, for I love you;” and I bent until my lips touched her finger-tips.
“I cannot!” she cried at last, with an effort rising and firmly withdrawing her hand from my grasp.
“You cannot? Why?” I demanded, taken somewhat aback by her sudden attitude of determination.
“I will not allow you to ruin yourself, Gerald, on my account,” she declared in a very low but calm voice.
“But why should my love for you prove my ruin?” I cried madly. “The truth is that you do not love me. Why not admit it at once?”
“You are in error,” she hastened to protest. “I do love you. I love you to-day with the same fond affection as I entertained for you until that day—fatal to me—when you turned your back upon me and left me. But, alas! we can never now be the same to one another as we were then.” She paused for a moment to regain breath; then, pale-faced, with eyes filled with tears, she gripped my arm frantically, crying: “Gerald, my love, hear me! These are my last words, but I pronounce them—I make confession—so that you may understand the barrier that now lies between us.”
“Well,” I said, “speak—tell me!”
“Ah!” she cried hoarsely, covering her face with her hands, “you wring this confession from me. I am the most unhappy girl in all the world. Would that I were dead that it was all ended! If I did not love you, Gerald, I should deceive you, and leave you to discover the truth after our marriage. But I cannot—I cannot! Even though we shall part to-day for ever, I have resolved to be frank with you because I still have one single spark of honesty left within my heart!”
“I don’t understand,” I exclaimed. “Tell me.”