the continuance of moderate resentment to this flood of tenderness.  Of course he stood with his arm round her waist, and of course he returned her caresses; but he did it with such stiff constraint that she at once felt how chill they were.  ‘There,’ she said, smiling through her bitter tears,—­’there; you are released now, and not even my fingers shall ever be laid upon you again.  If I have annoyed you, at this our last meeting, you must forgive me.’

‘No;—­but you cut me to the heart.’

’That we can hardly help;—­can we?  When two persons have made fools of themselves as we have, there must I suppose be some punishment.  Yours will never be heavy after I am gone.  I do not start...