'
'Is it wrong to run away from the fire that scorches you?'
'It would look wrong, at any rate, in this case.'
'Alwyn, Alwyn, take me, I beseech you!' she burst out. 'It is not
right in general, I know, but it is such an exceptional instance,
this. Why has such a severe strain been put upon me? I was doing
no harm, injuring no one, helping many people, and expecting
happiness; yet trouble came. Can it be that God holds me in
derision? I had no supporter--I gave way; and now my life is a
burden and a shame to me . . . Oh, if you only knew how much to me
this request to you is--how my life is wrapped up in it, you could
not deny me!'
'This is almost beyond endurance--Heaven support us,' he groaned.
'Emmy, you are the Duchess of Hamptonshire, the Duke of
Hamptonshire's wife; you must not go with me!'
'And am I then refused?--Oh, am I refused?' she cried frantically.
'Alwyn, Alwyn, do you say it indeed to me?'
'Yes, I do, dear, tender heart! I do most sadly say it. You must
not go. Forgive me, for there is no alternative but refusal.
Though I die, though you die, we must not fly together. It is
forbidden in God's law. Good-bye, for always and ever!'
He tore himself away, hastened from the shrubbery, and vanished
among the trees.
Three days after this meeting and farewell, Alwyn, his soft,
handsome features stamped with a haggard hardness that ten years of
ordinary wear and tear in the world could scarcely have produced,
sailed from Plymouth on a drizzling morning, in the passenger-ship
Western Glory.
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