Both were silent, and looked straight before them.

Melissa, as she walked on, could not think with her usual calm.

Like a suffering man who goes to the physician's house to die or be cured by the knife, she felt that she was on her way to something terrible in itself, to remedy, if possible, something still more dreadful.

Her father--Alexander, so reckless and so good-hearted--Philip, whom she pitied--and her sick lover, came in turn before her fancy.

But she could not control her mind to dwell on either for long.