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"I--I am wicked!" she wailed "Oh, I have done that which has damned me forever, Carus!--forever and ever I can not wed you--I love you so!--yet I can not wed you! What wild folly drove ed me here to tempt you--whom I love so truly? Oh, God pity us both--God pity us!"

"Elsin," I said hoarsely, "you areon earth to bar us from wedlock?"

"Yes, Carus, yes!" she cried "It is--it is too late!"

"Too late!" I repeated, stunned

"Aye--for I am a wedded wife! Now you know! Oh, this is the end of all!"

A while she lay there sobbing her heart out, I upright onat blank space, which reeled and reeled, so that the rooaze, lest the whole world co her tear- heavily in her hands: "I ask your pardon--for the sin I have committed Hear me out--that is my penance; spurn me--that is"Are you listening, Carus? The night before I sailed froht me----"

"Who?" My lips found the question, but no sound ca!"

In the dreadful silence I heard her choking back the cry that strangled her And after a while she found her voice again: "I was a child--a vain, silly thing of norant of men, innocent of the world, flattered by the mystery hich he cloaked his passion, awed, fascinated by this first h vanity, through a vague fear of him, perhaps, a promise of secret betrothal"

She lifted her head and set her chin on one clinched hand, yet never looked at allery, nose to the dia for him Suddenly I saw him there below Heaven is witness I meant no harm nor dreamed of any He was not alone My heart andfrom Canada and friends next day at dawn--and I went down to the terrace and out a the trees I had come only to bid him the farewell I had promised, Carus--I never dreamed of what he meant to do"