i want to be alone but felt ho had too far to turn back now it is impossible for me to leave you in this condition he said quietly as your friend mrs i have a right to stay till you are calmer it will do no good elizabeth answered bitterly you can not help me nobody can help me i must bear my trouble alone people don t die of grief they say � or of repentance either for that matter she added still i shall stay said a look of dead indifference settled down on elizabeth s face if he would stay he must after the first flash of womanly anger had died away she did not really care very much whether he staid or not she was absorbed in her own emotions that she was almost of the presence of another person there was no trace of the about elizabeth she did not pose � she simply felt she sat down in the arm chair stood waiting for some time there was silence between them at last he said mrs this is dreadful tou must tell me what has happened i can not tell you she answered speaking slowly and with some difficulty i can not tell any one then she added after a minute or two i have had a terrible experience to night can you fancy what it is suddenly in as moment to be with self reproach to have built yourself a fair dwelling house and in the time of your utmost need to find that it is built on the sand to see it crack and around you to see it washed away for ever while you stand and desolate oh robert robert she cried breaking suddenly into a wild passion of grief oh my darling forgive me i i have tried to forget you i have wanted to fling all the past behind me i have wanted so desperately to be happy yon who have entered into that perfect peace where all our miserable selfish desires and fade away forgive me pardon me elizabeth stood up the flood gates were open and utterly regardless of s presence she poured forth her heart in speech to night she went on i have learned the truth too late i have seen my fatal mistake i have looked back at my past life i see that i have missed the meaning of it all and that self self nothing but self a sketch in black and white is written across every page of it i might have found of joy in wedded love bitter sweet joy in mourning and joy in duty and i have rejected it all ah believe she turning suddenly to him ood is merciful soiled and weary but we may still creep into heaven at last but he is terribly just what we sow that and that only can we reap i have to myself and i reap the fruit of my � sorrow a fearful sense of waste yet i can not complain it is bitter r no one else can ever know how bitter but it is all my own doing and it is only just to there was something almost sublime in this submission he thought of our lady of sorrow again and could have down and the woman who stood before him crowned with the glory and the anguish of her utter self after a little time she looked up again all the hardness had melted out of her face and there was something very wistful and tender in its expression if i had only lived two or three hundred years ago she said i should have gone away now and buried my mistakes and repentance in some i should have put on coarse garments have brought my body into with and penance have hardened my hands with labor and � don t cried suddenly with a shudder pray don t mrs i can t stand this elizabeth smiled faintly but her lips were tremulous why not she asked gently i thinks do you know i could be very peaceful and contented in some � r i where ant out tbe and i might tend poor old folk and teach little children this ia a mere dream with lore again � i can t do thia no thank sod yon can t he said under his i do in a way far harder than this she went on something quite commonplace and i must go back to tomorrow and try to please and comfort those whom in my selfish pride i thrust aside and scorned � i have made a great f � now i shall be content with yery simple � i shall be humble in future i think and quite willing to take the lowest room there are better things in life than happiness perhaps � but it is sad she added looking away and speaking more to herself than to him it is all very sad it is all over for me and tbe long years stretch out so gray and level into the distance and i shall be all alone � and i am so young tbe last few words moved strangely she was very young and tbe mystery and tragedy of it all seemed to him infinite as ho looked at her in her piteous beauty and sorrow read his own heart � friendship seemed to him a very pale and good his took to themselves wings and flew away all his doubts and resolved themselves into one passionate desire his face grew thin and eager and a great light came into his eyes he forgot everything else he only knew that amid warmth and light and the penetrating sweetness of flowers he was standing alone face to face with the woman ho loved a m black and white threw back his head and took a long deep breath it seemed to 