Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/240

 He stood on the threshold of her cell, and the tears were coursing down his cheeks; he was very pale, and he was silent; words came to his throat, but seemed to choke him and were mute.

She shrank back in unspeakable revulsion of feeling; the blood seemed to turn to ice in her veins under the disappointment.

She sat down and turned her face from him.

The action smote him to the quick and unloosed his tongue.

'Let me help you! Let me help you!' he said piteously; and could think of nothing more or better to say.

She shook her head in sign of refusal.

Help her! how could he help her? How could Heaven itself help her, since her lover had forgotten, and her child was dead?

'If I had only known! If I had only known!' he said stupidly. 'Oh, the beast—the fool'

She turned her face towards him, and looked up from under her lowering brows.

'Go away,' she said sternly, and in a low steady voice. 'I do not want you. I did not send for you. I told you I never should for twenty years, Go, go!'