"I do not, I may not give myself to you.

But I do give you love, such as I believe no woman ever before gave to a man.

I am going to marry the Duke of Tyrconnel.

But when I learned how grievously I had wronged you, I would not give him my promise of marriage until I had seen you and had told you of my love, and had taken one moment of happiness before the door is closed between us forever." This answer came to Hamilton as a chilling surprise, but a moment's consideration brought him to see that the girl was right, save, perhaps, in telling her love to a man she could not marry.

His knowledge of womankind did not help him to know that her hopelessness had been a stimulant, both to her love and to its prodigal expression.