“Whatever your happiness demands, I cannot refuse to concede, but you can scarcely require me to receive ‘graciously’ the only construction I can possibly place upon your request; that I am no longer an essential element in your happiness.”

Knowing that he owed her every possible reparation, he was resolved to shield her womanly pride from any additional wounds.  He withdrew his encircling arm, released her hand, walked to the end of the aviary, and stood watching the shimmer of the fountain, where two of the ring-doves held their wings aslant to catch the spray.  After some moments she joined him, and laid her slender fingers on his arm.

“Dear Lennox, I propose at least a temporary change in our relations, and even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, I prefer to be perfectly frank.  When you asked me to become your wife, neither of us contemplated the long separation involved in this cruise abroad, which I ardently desire for many reasons to make; and I am unwilling to fetter either you or myself by an engagement during my absence.  I want to be entirely free, bound by no promise; and could I ask release, unless you accepted yours?”

He put his palm under her chin, and lifted the sweet, pure face, forcing her to return his gaze.

“Have I forfeited your confidence?”

“No.  Lennox.  I have an indestructible faith in your honor.”

Her clear, truthful eyes assured him she acquitted him of all intention to violate in any jot or tittle the forms of his allegiance.

“You deem me incapable of intentionally betraying your noble trust?”

“I do—­indeed I do.”

“My peerless Leo, have you ceased to love me?”

She shut her eyes an instant, and the delicate, flower face blanched; the treacherous lips quivered: 

“No.”

“Who has supplanted me in your heart, for once I know it was all my own?”

“Lennox, you are still more to me than all the world beside; but I ask time, I must be free at present.  Let me go away untrammelled; consider yourself as unfettered, as before our engagement, and when the year expires, if you deem me absolutely necessary to your happiness, you can readily ask a renewal of your bonds, and I can be sure by that time whether my happiness depends upon becoming your wife.  After to-day I shall not wear your ring; and if, while away, I send it back to you, interpret it as a final decision that in the future we can only be very faithful and attached friends.  I have sadly mistaken your character if you refuse me release from a compact which I now certainly desire to cancel.”

A shadow fell over his face, and he sighed heavily; but whether the utterance of regret or relief she never knew.