"
"If you love me, you will stay."
"Not a moment--though God knows how I love you! I will come to see you
soon again."
"If you go now, I will never let you see me again!--Nay, you must drag
me after you, then!"
He was moving toward the door despite her hold; and now he caught her
wrists to force open the clasp in which she held him.
"Oh! you are crushing my arms!" she cried.
"Ay, the beautiful, dear arms--God bless them! But let me go, then!"
"I won't! You will have to kill me, first! You shall not spoil my
scheme!"
"Yours!"
"Yes, mine! Mine, against your commander, against your cause!" She was
wrought up now to a fury, at the physical force he exerted to release
himself; and for the time, swayed by her feelings only, she let policy
fly to the winds. "Your cause that I hate, because it ruined my hopes
before! You are a fool if you think my being your wife would have kept
me from fighting your hateful cause. I became your wife that I might
go to England, and when that failed I was yours no longer. Love
another? Yes!--and you shall not spoil his work and mine--not unless
you kill me!"
For a moment his mental anguish, his overwhelming shame for her,
unnerved him, and he stared at her with a ghastly face, relaxing his
pressure for freedom. But this weakness was followed by a fierce
reaction. His countenance darkened, and with one effort, the first
into which he had put his real strength, he tore her arms from him.
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