To and fro, like a wild creature in its cage, paced that handsome woman,with bent head, locked hands, and restless steps. Some mental storm,swift and sudden as a tempest of the tropics, had swept over her andleft its marks behind. As if in anger at the beauty now provedpowerless, all ornaments had been flung away, yet still it shoneundimmed, and filled her with a passionate regret. A jewel glittered ather feet, leaving the lace rent to shreds on the indignant bosom thathad worn it; the wreaths of hair that had crowned her with a woman'smost womanly adornment fell disordered upon shoulders that gleamed thefairer for the scarlet of the pomegranate flowers clinging to the brightmeshes that had imprisoned them an hour ago; and over the face, once soaffluent in youthful bloom, a stern pallor had fallen like a blight, forpride was slowly conquering passion, and despair had murdered hope.

Standing thus, conscious only of the wound that bled in that high heartof hers, and the longing that gradually took shape and deepened to apurpose, an alien presence changed the tragic atmosphere of that stillroom and woke her from her dangerous mood. A wonderfully winning guisethis apparition wore, for youth, hope, and love endowed it with thecharm that gives beauty to the plainest, while their reign endures. Aboy in any other climate, in this his nineteen years had given him thestature of a man; and Spain, the land of romance, seemed embodied inthis figure, full of the lithe slenderness of the whispering palmsoverhead, the warm coloring of the deep-toned flowers sleeping in theroom, the native grace of the tame antelope lifting its human eyes tohis as he lingered on the threshold in an attitude eager yet timid,watching that other figure as it looked into the night and found nosolace there.

"Pauline!"

She turned as if her thought had taken voice and answered her, regardedhim a moment, as if hesitating to receive the granted wish, thenbeckoned with the one word.

"Come!"

Instantly the fear vanished, the ardor deepened, and with an imperious"Lie down!" to his docile attendant, the young man obeyed with equaldocility, looking as wistfully toward his mistress as the brute towardher master, while he waited proudly humble for her commands.

"Manuel, why are you here?"

"Forgive me! I saw Dolores bring a letter; you vanished, an hour passed,I could wait no longer, and I came."

"I am glad, I needed my one friend. Read that."

She offered a letter, and with her steady eyes upon him, her purposestrengthening as she looked, stood watching the changes of thatexpressive countenance. This was the letter:

_Pauline -

Six months ago I left you, promising to return and take you home mywife; I loved you, but I deceived you; for though my heart was whollyyours, my hand was not mine to give. This it was that haunted me throughall that blissful summer, this that marred my happiness when you ownedyou loved me, and this drove me from you, hoping I could break the tiewith which I had rashly bound myself. I could not, I am married, andthere all ends. Hate me, forget me, solace your pride with the memorythat none knew your wrong, assure your peace with the knowledge thatmine is destroyed forever, and leave my punishment to remorse and time.

Gilbert_

With a gesture of wrathful contempt, Manuel flung the paper from him ashe flashed a look at his companion, muttering through his teeth,"Traitor! Shall I kill him?"

Pauline laughed low to herself, a dreary sound, but answered with a slowdarkening of the face that gave her words an ominous significance. "Whyshould you? Such revenge is brief and paltry, fit only for mocktragedies or poor souls who have neither the will to devise nor the willto execute a better. There are fates more terrible than death; weaponsmore keen than poniards, more noiseless than pistols. Women use such,and work out a subtler vengeance than men can conceive. Leave Gilbert toremorse - and me."

She paused an instant, and by some strong effort banished the blackfrown from her brow, quenched the baleful fire of her eyes, and leftnothing visible but the pale determination that made her beautiful facemore eloquent than her words.

"Manuel, in a week I leave the island."

"Alone, Pauline?"

"No, not alone."

A moment they looked into each other's eyes, each endeavoring to readthe other. Manuel saw some indomitable purpose, bent on conquering allobstacles. Pauline saw doubt, desire, and hope; knew that a word wouldbring the ally she needed; and, with a courage as native to her as herpride, resolved to utter it.

Seating herself, she beckoned her companion to assume the place besideher, but for the first time he hesitated. Something in the unnaturalcalmness of her manner troubled him, for his southern temperament wasalive to influences whose presence would have been unfelt by one lesssensitive. He took the cushion at her feet, saying, half tenderly, halfreproachfully, "Let me keep my old place till I know in what character Iam to fill the new. The man you trusted has deserted you; the boy youpitied will prove loyal. Try him, Pauline."

"I will."

And with the bitter smile unchanged upon her lips, the low voiceunshaken in its tones, the deep eyes unwavering in their gaze, Paulinewent on:

"You know my past, happy as a dream till eighteen. Then all was sweptaway, home, fortune, friends, and I was left, like an unfledged bird,without even the shelter of a cage. For five years I have made my lifewhat I could, humble, honest, but never happy, till I came here, forhere I saw Gilbert. In the poor companion of your guardian's daughter heseemed to see the heiress I had been, and treated me as such. Thisflattered my pride and touched my heart. He was kind, I grateful; thenhe loved me, and God knows how utterly I loved him! A few months ofhappiness the purest, then he went to make home ready for me, and Ibelieved him; for where I wholly love I wholly trust. While my own peacewas undisturbed, I learned to read the language of your eyes, Manuel, tofind the boy grown into the man, the friend warmed into a lover. Youryouth had kept me blind too long. Your society had grown dear to me, andI loved you like a sister for your unvarying kindness to the solitarywoman who earned her bread and found it bitter. I told you my secret toprevent the utterance of your own. You remember the promise you made methen, keep it still, and bury the knowledge of my lost happiness deep inyour pitying heart, as I shall in my proud one. Now the storm is over,and I am ready for my work again, but it must be a new task in a newscene. I hate this house, this room, the faces I must meet, the duties Imust perform, for the memory of that traitor haunts them all. I see afuture full of interest, a stage whereon I could play a stirring part. Ilong for it intensely, yet cannot make it mine alone. Manuel, do youlove me still?"

Bending suddenly, she brushed back the dark hair that streaked hisforehead and searched the face that in an instant answered her. Like aswift rising light, the eloquent blood rushed over swarthy cheek andbrow, the slumberous softness of the eyes kindled with a flash, and thelips, sensitive as any woman's, trembled yet broke into a rapturoussmile as he cried, with fervent brevity, "I would die for you!"

A look of triumph swept across her face, for with this boy, aschivalrous as ardent, she knew that words were not mere breath. Still,with her stern purpose uppermost, she changed the bitter smile into onehalf-timid, half-tender, as she bent still nearer, "Manuel, in a week Ileave the island. Shall I go alone?"

"No, Pauline."

He understood her now. She saw it in the sudden paleness that fell onhim, heard it in the rapid beating of his heart, felt it in the stronggrasp that fastened on her hand, and knew that the first step was won. Aregretful pang smote her, but the dark mood which had taken possessionof her stifled the generous warnings of her better self and drove heron.

"Listen, Manuel. A strange spirit rules me tonight, but I will have noreserves from you, all shall be told; then, if you will come, be it so;if not, I shall go my way as solitary as I came. If you think that thisloss has broken my heart, undeceive yourself, for such as I live yearsin an hour and show no sign. I have shed no tears, uttered no cry, askedno comfort; yet, since I read that letter, I have suffered more thanmany suffer in a lifetime. I am not one to lament long over any hopelesssorrow. A single paroxysm, sharp and short, and it is over. Contempt haskilled my love, I have buried it, and no power can make it live again,except as a pale ghost that will not rest till Gilbert shall passthrough an hour as bitter as the last."

"Is that the task you give yourself, Pauline?"

The savage element that lurks in southern blood leaped up in the boy'sheart as he listened, glittered in his eye, and involuntarily foundexpression in the nervous grip of the hands that folded a fairer onebetween them. Alas for Pauline that she had roused the sleeping devil,and was glad to see it!

"Yes, it is weak, wicked, and unwomanly; yet I persist as relentlesslyas any Indian on a war trail. See me as I am, not the gay girl you haveknown, but a revengeful woman with but one tender spot now left in herheart, the place you fill. I have been wronged, and I long to rightmyself at once. Time is too slow; I cannot wait, for that man must betaught that two can play at the game of hearts, taught soon and sharply.I can do this, can wound as I have been wounded, can sting him withcontempt, and prove that I too can forget."

"Go on, Pauline. Show me how I am to help you."

"Manuel, I want fortune, rank, splendor, and power; you can give me allthese, and a faithful friend beside. I desire to show Gilbert thecreature he deserted no longer poor, unknown, unloved, but lifted higherthan himself, cherished, honored, applauded, her life one of royalpleasure, herself a happy queen. Beauty, grace, and talent you tell me Ipossess; wealth gives them luster, rank exalts them, power makes themirresistible. Place these worldly gifts in my hand and that hand isyours. See, I offer it."

She did so, but it was not taken. Manuel had left his seat and now stoodbefore her, awed by the undertone of strong emotion in her calmly spokenwords, bewildered by the proposal so abruptly made, longing to ask thenatural question hovering on his lips, yet too generous to utter it.Pauline read his thought, and answered it with no touch of pain or pridein the magical voice that seldom spoke in vain.

"I know your wish; it is as just as your silence is generous, and Ireply to it in all sincerity. You would ask, 'When I have given all thatI possess, what do I receive in return?' This - a wife whose friendshipis as warm as many a woman's love; a wife who will give you all theheart still left her, and cherish the hope that time may bring a harvestof real affection to repay you for the faithfulness of years; who,though she takes the retribution of a wrong into her hands and executesit in the face of heaven, never will forget the honorable name you giveinto her keeping or blemish it by any act of hers. I can promise nomore. Will this content you, Manuel?"

Before she ended his face was hidden in his hands, and tears streamedthrough them as he listened, for like a true child of the south eachemotion found free vent and spent itself as swiftly as it rose. Thereaction was more than he could bear, for in a moment his life waschanged, months of hopeless longing were banished with a word, ablissful yes canceled the hard no that had been accepted as inexorable,and Happiness, lifting her full cup to his lips, bade him drink. Amoment he yielded to the natural relief, then dashed his tears away andthrew himself at Pauline's feet in that attitude fit only for a race asgraceful as impassioned.

"Forgive me! Take all I have - fortune, name, and my poor self; use us asyou will, we are proud and happy to be spent for you! No service will betoo hard, no trial too long if in the end you learn to love me with onetithe of the affection I have made my life. Do you mean it? Am I to gowith you? To be near you always, to call you wife, and know we are eachother's until death? What have I ever done to earn a fate like this?"

Fast and fervently he spoke, and very winsome was the glad abandonmentof this young lover, half boy, half man, possessing the simplicity ofthe one, the fervor of the other. Pauline looked and listened with asoothing sense of consolation in the knowledge that this loyal heart wasall her own, a sweet foretaste of the devotion which henceforth was toshelter her from poverty, neglect, and wrong, and turn life's sunniestside to one who had so long seen only its most bleak and barren. Stillat her feet, his arms about her waist, his face flushed and proud,lifted to hers, Manuel saw the cold mask soften, the stern eyes meltwith a sudden dew as Pauline watched him, saying, "Dear Manuel, love meless; I am not worth such ardent and entire faith. Pause and reflectbefore you take this step. I will not bind you to my fate too soon lestyou repent too late. We both stand alone in the world, free to make ormar our future as we will. I have chosen my lot. Recall all it may costyou to share it and be sure the price is not too high a one. Remember Iam poor, you the possessor of one princely fortune, the sole heir toanother."

"The knowledge of this burdened me before; now I glory in it because Ihave the more for you."

"Remember, I am older than yourself, and may early lose the beauty youlove so well, leaving an old wife to burden your youth."

"What are a few years to me? Women like you grow lovelier with age, andyou shall have a strong young husband to lean on all your life."

"Remember, I am not of your faith, and the priests will shut me out fromyour heaven."

"Let them prate as they will. Where you go I will go; Santa Paula shallbe my madonna!"

"Remember, I am a deserted woman, and in the world we are going to myname may become the sport of that man's cruel tongue. Could you bearthat patiently; and curb your fiery pride if I desired it?"

"Anything for you, Pauline!"

"One thing more. I give you my liberty; for a time give me forbearancein return, and though wed in haste woo me slowly, lest this sore heartof mine find even your light yoke heavy. Can you promise this, and waittill time has healed my wound, and taught me to be meek?"

"I swear to obey you in all things; make me what you will, for soul andbody I am wholly yours henceforth."

"Faithful and true! I knew you would not fail me. Now go, Manuel.Tomorrow do your part resolutely as I shall do mine, and in a week wewill begin the new life together. Ours is a strange betrothal, but itshall not lack some touch of tenderness from me. Love, good night."

Pauline bent till her bright hair mingled with the dark, kissed the boyon lips and forehead as a fond sister might have done, then put himgently from her; and like one in a blessed dream he went away to paceall night beneath her window, longing for the day.

As the echo of his steps died along the corridor, Pauline's eye fell onthe paper lying where her lover flung it. At this sight all the softnessvanished, the stern woman reappeared, and, crushing it in her hand withslow significance, she said low to herself, "This is an old, old story,but it shall have a new ending."