Why did she almost spring after him?
'Lancelot! one word! Do not misunderstand me, as I know you will.

You will think me so cold, heartless, fickle .-- Oh, you do not know-- you never can know--how much I, too, have felt!' He stopped, spell-bound.

In an instant his conversation with the Irishman flashed up before him with new force and meaning.

A thousand petty incidents, which he had driven contemptuously from his mind, returned as triumphant evidences; and, with an impetuous determination, he cried out,-- 'I see--I see it all, Argemone! We love each other! You are mine, never to be parted!' What was her womanhood, that it could stand against the energy of his manly will! The almost coarse simplicity of his words silenced her with a delicious violence.

She could only bury her face in her hands and sob out,-- 'Oh, Lancelot, Lancelot, whither are you forcing me ?' 'I am forcing you no whither.