He had built such fair castles of hope, the ruin was so great; he had dreamt such dreams of happiness--and the awakening was so bitter! Gwladys saw the storm of feeling which had overwhelmed him, and for a moment her voice softened.
"I am sorry for you," she said; "but I have given you my answer." The slight tone of tenderness in her voice seemed to restore Cardo to life.

He crossed the velvet path, and, laying hold of her hands, which she in vain tried to wrest from his grasp.
"You are mine!" he said, "and I challenge heaven and earth to take you from me!" "It is base and dishonourable," said Gwladys, still struggling in his grasp, "to frighten a friendless girl and force your presence upon her." But Cardo's grasp was suddenly relaxed.

Dropping his arms at his sides, and going back a step or two, he stood aside to let her pass.
His long-tried temper had over-mastered him, as with a scornful voice he spoke for the last time.
"One word before you go--dishonourable! not even _you_ shall call me that twice.

Some strange cloud is over you--you are not the same Valmai that walked with me beside the Berwen.

You cannot kill my love, but you have turned it to-night into gall and bitterness.