Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/238

 "Yes, Cid."

"Well?"

She was silent, and looked away from his tender eyes, over the fair landscape, and then shivered at an ugly thought that came into her mind.

"Shall I tell you why you called me?" he asked. She did not speak, but bowed her head in assent. "Because you love me, Gladys, with a love which is not of this earth only; because your lower self tries to ignore this love, and would do it an outrage. Ah, child, you were in sore need of me when that spirit, so long subordinate to your worldly self, sighed to mine for help. I have come, and offer you that help." He paused, and then continued: "Why was it that at the last moment you threw over that 'splendid match' and gave such pain and mortification to that man in Germany?"

"I could not marry him, Cid."

"And why? Because you could not put a barrier between our two souls, which have