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 “You fear I might sacrifice you to something else. It is possible. Every man resists temptation only to a certain point; every man has his price. It is a risk you will run with any.

“If you doubt that a man is capable of sacrificing one thing that he loves to another that he loves more, tempt him, lie in wait for his weakness, ensnare him in the toils of his greater passion, and learn the truth.

“I make no defence—believe all that you say. But had you loved me, I might have been all this, and it would have been nothing.”

With this I walked slowly out of the arbor, but Georgiana stood beside me. Her light touch was on my arm.

“Let me see things clearly!”

“You have a lifetime in which to see things clearly,” I answered. “How can that concern me now?” And I passed on into the house.