sad among the young ladies that season margaret smiled at the of the girl s temper and presently saw her off with a mingled feeling of amusement and relief and about half an hour afterwards the highly respectable and wood came and announced prince chapter the tearing op an old wound theirs is the present who can praise the fast life has its bliss for these when past its bloom i know how to describe how those two met again after so many years in circumstances so different to those in which they had parted as wood s voice through the pretty margaret rose from her chair and went a step or two to meet her guest she held out her hand and greeted him in quiet conventional tones and wood shut the door again without having the very faintest suspicion that his mistress s visitor was any but the most ordinary one but when the door was safely closed they stood he holding her hands and looking at her as if he could never sufficiently feast his eyes upon the pale dear face the great brown eyes and sweet tender mouth of her he loved best in all the world poor margaret she had meant to be so different she had meant to meet him with perfect coolness and indifference to remind him by every look and tone and gesture that she was the wife of another man to be quite civil and pleasant towards him and to make him feel that a woman the past was a forbidden topic between them to make him feel that the past was past and done with for ever poor margaret she had it all so many times during the hours which had passed since she had that he had come into her life again and the reality was so very different from the scene that she had so carefully planned out for herself for never made any pretence of being but an ordinary acquaintance � he just took both her hands in his and stood looking down upon her with all his soul and all his heart in his eyes his face by the passion of the moment his lips trembling his hands shaking a more sober time worn than him from whom she had parted in pain and tears years ago in far away yes and if the truth be told as in the telling of such a story as this it always should be told an infinitely more attractive than ever he had been before poor margaret � poor margaret i but in spite of her distress at the turn events had taken she was as full of real courage as she had ever been she had fully made up her mind that she would not utter one word that could in any way be false to her husband and although a perfect storm of old recollection and passion swept over her at thus finding herself face to face with the one great love of her life yet she made a effort to put him at a distance she withdrew her hands gently from the eager clasp of his and turned back to the upon which she had been sitting before his arrival sit down she said with a polite gesture towards a chair near at hand but sat down on the also the chair to which she had pointed you did not see me this morning he said still keeping his eyes fixed upon her no i did not see you she replied where were i was in i saw you driving with � with he half hesitated over the words try as he would he could not bring himself to say your husband oh yes we did go for a drive this morning she said as carelessly as she could then looked up at him you see i was very tired after my party last night i was glad to get a little fresh the tearing of an old for a moment there was silence then spoke is there nothing that you want to ask me he said in a very tone to ask you answered she in a trembling voice oh what should i want to ask you of course you have given up the little flat in the long ago i have never given it up it is my home � my he replied nothing is changed nothing is altered except that is married and two of the are dead he spoke in an exceedingly bitter tone but margaret did not seem to notice it oh she exclaimed is there still yes is still waiting for your coming back again � and i he added in an oh don t � don t margaret cried in a voice of anguish said in a tone you are married you have children you are mistress of a large house and your position is beyond compare with the sacrifice which you would have had to make for me but you are not happy you are wretched and be fate as it will your heart is mine still you cannot deny it i neither deny nor admit anything she said coldly if it is as you say then i have to bear a misfortune which i do not deserve but why should you not admit it but there i did not come to try to make you unhappy � god knows that at any time i would have laid down my life to serve you you know that well enough without my telling you but oh my my one love my very life in mercy tell me that one thing � you have not forgotten i have forgotten nothing she said looking straight at him her tone was very significant and made the hot blood mount up into his face his eyes drooped before hers and he bent his head as if to accept the and yet all to 