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74 "Then all the more reason," said he, desperately, "that we should end it all together."

"Agreed," said Ouida, and as she spoke, she handed him a jeweled dagger. "Waste no time," she urged. "Plunge this deep into my heart, then draw it forth and join me in eternity."

He quickly seized the proffered weapon, raised it high in the air, and was about to sink it into her bared breast, when they heard Paul's footsteps approaching. The dagger dropped from his nerveless hand. He covered his face with his hand, exclaiming: "Shame upon me, that I, in unmanly weakness, should have entertained so hideous a resolve!"

"Quick," said Ouida, "to the inner chamber, and there remain until I can let you out unseen."

He got out not a moment too soon, for upon the very instant of his disappearance, Paul entered the chamber of the bride.

"Come, Ouida," he said, "let me fold you to my breast, for tonight you have enthroned me in the kingdom of love."

"I have fulfilled my oath, that is all," said Ouida, wearily, and not responsive to his enthusiasm and passion.

He threw upon her a questioning glance.

"How changed you are," said he. "It seems but an hour agone to me, when you, with the very ecstasy of passion, awoke the slumbering fires within me. Tonight, when you should greet me with a smile of joy, you seem a block of ice, whose coldness chills me with the grip of death."

"Do not upbraid me," she pleaded. "I shall strive,