There is some mystery, some mystification in all this, Margaret;
some woman's fancy, which a few words of explanation would set at rest.
Margaret, my pearl! do you think I will consent to lose you so lightly?
My own dear love! do you know me so little as to think that I will part
with you? My love is a stronger passion than you think, Madge; and the
bondage you accepted when you promised to be my wife is a bondage that
cannot so easily be shaken off!"
Margaret watched her lover's face with melancholy, tearless eyes.
"Fate is stronger than love, Clement," she said, mournfully, "I can
never be your wife!"
"Why not?"
"For a reason which you can never know."
"Margaret, I will not submit----"
"You must submit," the girl said, holding up her hand, as if to stop her
lover's passionate words. "You must submit, Clement. This world seems
very hard sometimes, so hard that in a dreadful interval of dull despair
the heavens are hidden from us, and we cannot recognize the Eternal
wisdom guiding the hand that afflicts us. My life seems very hard to me
to-day, Clement. Do not try to make it harder. I am a most unhappy
woman; and in all the world there is only one favour you can grant me.
Let me go away unquestioned; and blot my image from your heart for ever
when I am gone.
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