Mr. St. John spoke almost like an automaton: himself only knew the effort it cost him thus to refuse.

"Well，if you are so obstinate，I will leave you; for I dare not stay any longer: the dew begins to fall. Good evening!" She held out her hand. He just touched it. "Good evening!" he repeated，in a voice low and hollow as an echo. She turned，but in a moment returned.

"Are you well?" she asked. Well might she put the question: his face was blanched as her gown.

"Quite well," he enunciated; and，with a bow，he left the gate. She went one way; he another. She turned twice to gaze after him as she tripped fairy-like down the field; he，as he strode firmly across，never turned at all.

This spectacle of another"s suffering and sacrifice rapt my thoughts from exclusive meditation on my own. Diana Rivers had designated her brother "inexorable as death." She had not exaggerated.