Leave us to-morrow. I will admit your good intentions. I give you my
hand in gratitude. Adieu, Mr. Camwell.'
He took her hand. 'Adieu. I foresee an early separation, and this dear
hand is mine while I have it in mine. Adieu. It is a word to be
repeated at a parting like ours. We do not blow out our light with one
breath: we let it fade gradually, like yonder sunset.'
'Speak so,' said she.
'Ah, Chloe, to give one's life! And it is your happiness I have sought
more than your favor.'
'I believe it; but I have not liked the means. You leave us to-morrow?'
'It seems to me that to-morrow is the term.'
Her face clouded. 'That tells me a very uncertain promise.'
'You looked forth to a month of happiness--meaning a month of delusion.
The delusion expires to-night. You will awaken to see your end of it in
the morning. You have never looked beyond the month since the day of his
arrival.'
'Let him not be named, I supplicate you.'
'Then you consent that another shall be sacrificed for you to enjoy your
state of deception an hour longer?'
'I am not deceived, sir. I wish for peace, and crave it, and that is all
I would have.'
'And you make her your peace-offering, whom you have engaged to serve!
Too surely your eyes have been open as well as mine. Knot by knot--
I have watched you--where is it?--you have marked the points in that
silken string where the confirmation of a just suspicion was too strong
for you.
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