"Percy! I entreat you!" she whispered, "can we not bury the past?""Pardon me, Madame, but I understood you to say that your desire was to dwell in it.""Nay! I spoke not of THAT past, Percy!" she said, while a tone of tenderness crept into her voice. "Rather did I speak of a time when you loved me still! and I. . .oh! I was vain and frivolous;your wealth and position allured me: I married you, hoping in my heart that your great love for me would beget in me a love for you. . .but, alas!. . ."The moon had sunk low down behind a bank of clouds. In the east a soft grey light was beginning to chase away the heavy mantle of the night. He could only see her graceful outline now, the small queenly head, with its wealth of reddish golden curls, and the glittering gems forming the small, star-shaped, red flower which she wore as a diadem in her hair.
