Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/278

 to follow you here. But the longing to see you was stronger than I was. I could not get your face out of my mind as you looked that night in the library. I—oh, what must you think of me!" he cried, lingering in the shadowy part of the room.

I could not trust myself to speak for a moment; then I told him, as coldly as I could, what had taken place between Mr. Thurber and me.

When I had finished, he sank into a chair, and buried his face in his hands.

"O Dorris," he groaned, "do not mislead me! There is a ray of hope shining upon me. Don't be cruel enough to put it out!"

I knelt down by his side and drew his hand away.

"George," I said, with quivering lips, "how could you be so unkind to me as to tell me I must marry him when I loved you all the time?"

Judith says, with a mischievous face,—

"What, Dorris! a foreigner?"