Slowly he paced up and down the rocky ledge, giving no heed to the

passage of time, all his faculties centred upon the struggle between the

inexorable demands of conscience on the one hand and the insatiate

cravings of a newly awakened passion on the other. Vainly he strove to

find some middle ground. Gradually, as his brain grew calm, the various

courses of action which had at first suggested themselves to his mind

appeared weak and cowardly, and the only course open to him was that of

renunciation and of self-immolation.

With a bitter cry he threw himself, face downward, upon the ground. A

long time he lay there, till at last the peace from the great pitying

heart of Nature touched his heart, and he slept on the warm bosom of

Mother Earth as a child on its mother's breast.

The sun was sinking towards the western ranges and slowly lengthening

shadows were creeping athwart the distant valleys when Darrell rose to

his feet and, after silently drinking in the beauty of the scene about

him, prepared to descend. His face bore traces of the recent struggle,

but it was the face of one who had conquered, whose mastery of himself

was beyond all doubt or question. He took the homeward trail with firm

step, with head erect, with face set and determined, and there was in

his bearing that which indicated that there would be no wavering, no

swerving from his purpose. His own hand had closed and bolted the gates

of the Eden whose sweets he had but just tasted, and his conscience held

the flaming sword which was henceforth to guard those portals.

A little later, as Darrell in the early twilight passed up the driveway

to The Pines, he was conscious only of a dull, leaden weight within his

breast; his very senses seemed benumbed and he almost believed himself

incapable of further suffering, till, as he approached the house, the

sight of Kate seated in the veranda with her father and aunt and the

thought of the suffering yet in store for her thrilled him anew with

most poignant pain.

His face was in the shadow as he came up the steps, and only Kate,

seated near him, saw its pallor. She started and would have uttered an

exclamation, but something in its expression awed and restrained her.

There was a grave tenderness in his eyes as they met hers, but the light

and joy which had been there when last she looked into them had gone out

and in their place were dark gloom and despair. She heard as in a dream

his answers to the inquiries of her father and aunt; heard him pass into

the house accompanied by her aunt, who had prepared a substantial lunch

against his return, and, with a strange sinking at her heart, sat

silently awaiting his coming out.




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