She came in swiftly, closing the door behind her, found and lighted a candle, and, setting it upon the table between us, put back the hood of her cloak, and looked at me, while I stood mute before her, abashed by the accusation of her eyes.

“Coward!” she said, and, with the word, snatched the neckerchief from my grasp, and, casting it upon the floor, set her foot upon it.  “Coward!” said she again.

“Yes,” I muttered; “yes, I was lost—­in a great darkness, and full of a horror of coming rights and days, and so—­I would have run away from it all—­like a coward—­”

“Oh, hateful—­hateful!” she cried, and covered her face as from some horror.

“Indeed, you cannot despise me more than I do myself,” said I, “now, or ever; I am a failure in all things, except, perhaps, the making of horseshoes—­and this world has no place for failures—­and as for horseshoes—­”

“Fool,” she whispered.  “Oh, fool that I dreamed so wise!  Oh, coward that seemed so brave and strong!  Oh, man that was so gloriously young and unspoiled!—­that it should end here—­that it should come to this.”  And, though she kept her face hidden, I knew that she was weeping.  “A woman’s love transforms the man till she sees him, not as he is, but as her heart would have him be; the dross becomes pure gold, and she believes and believes until—­one day her heart breaks—­”

“Charmian!—­what—­what do you mean?”

“Oh, are you still so blind?  Must I tell you?” she cried, lifting her head proudly.  “Why did I live beside you here in the wilderness?  Why did I work for you contrive for you—­and seek to make this desolation a home for you?  Often my heart cried out its secret to you—­but you never heard; often it trembled in my voice, looked at you from my eyes—­but you never guessed—­Oh, blind! blind!  And you drove me from you with shameful words —­but—­oh!—­I came back to you.  And now—­I know you for but common clay, after all, and—­even yet—­” She stopped, suddenly, and once more hid her face from me in her hands.

“And—­even yet, Charmian?” I whispered.

Very still she stood, with her face bowed upon her hands, but she could not hide from me the swift rise and fall of her bosom.

“Speak—­oh, Charmian, speak!”

“I am so weak—­so weak!” she whispered; “I hate myself.”

“Charmian!” I cried “—­oh, Charmian!” and seized her hands, and, despite her resistance, drew her into my arms, and, clasping her close, forced her to look at me.  “And even yet?—­what more—­what more—­tell me.”  But, lying back across my arm, she held me off with both hands.

“Don’t!” she cried; “don’t—­you shame me—­let me go.”

“God knows I am all unworthy, Charmian, and so low in my abasement that to touch you is presumption, but oh, woman whom I have loved from the first, and shall, to the end, have you stooped in your infinite mercy, to lift me from these depths—­is it a new life you offer me was it for this you came to-night?”