I cannot tell you more--I cannot, I cannot!' She pressed her palms upon her forehead; it throbbed with pain scarcely to be borne.

Wilfrid, after a moment of wretched hesitation, said gravely: 'What _you_ forbid me to ask, I may not even wish to know.

I have come to regard your will as the seal upon everything that is true and right.
Knowing this, seeing me here before you with my best hopes at stake, do you tell me that something has happened which makes the bond between us of no effect, which lays upon you a duty superior to that of the pledge you gave me ?' She met his gaze, and answered firmly, 'I do.' 'Some duty,' he continued, with quivering voice, 'compared with which the sacredness of our love is nothing ?' She trembled from head to foot; then, as if clutching at a last help, said: 'I do not love you.' And she waited with her head bowed.

Wilfrid, taking up his hat, went to her and offered his hand.

When hers was given: 'Raise your eyes and look at me, Emily.' She did so.
'You are still in the shadow of a great grief, and it may well be that all other things seem trivial.