gloomy, dull, sunless England. A hand seems always to be beckoning me there. I shall obey it some day, for Haiti—our lovely Haiti, is too beautiful." Her voice was low and marvellously musical. "Mademoiselle Césarine," I began timidly. She pouted and looked at me. "Mademoiselle again," she said in a pettish way. "I told you not to call me so, didn't I?" "Well, then, Césarine," I went on boldly. She laughed low, a little laugh of triumph, but did not correct or check me in any way. "Césarine," I continued, lingering I know not why over[Pg 14] the syllables of the name, "I will go, as you say. I shall see Haiti. Why should we not both go together?" [Pg 14] She looked up at me eagerly with a sudden look of hushed inquiry. "You mean it?" she asked, trembling visibly. "You mean it, Mr. Tristram? You know what you are saying?" "Césarine," I answered, "I mean it. I know it. I cannot go away from you and leave you. Something seems to tie me. I am not my own master.... Césarine, I love you." My head whirled as I said the words, but I meant them at the time, and heaven knows I tried ever after to live up to them. She clutched my arm convulsively for a moment. Her face was aglow with a wonderful light, and her eyes burned like a pair of diamonds. "But the other girl!" she cried. "Her! Miss Latham! The one you call Irene! You are ... in love with her! Are you not? Tell me!" "I have never proposed to Irene," I replied slowly. "I have never asked any other woman but you to marry me, Césarine." She answered me nothing, but my face was very near hers, and I bent forward and kissed her suddenly. To my immense surprise, instead of struggling or drawing away, she kissed me back a fervent kiss, with lips hard pressed to mine, and the tears trickled slowly down her cheeks in a strange fashion. "You are mine," she cried. "Mine for ever. I have won you. She shall not have you. I knew you were mine the moment I looked upon you. The hand beckoned me. I knew I should get you." "Come up into my den, Mr. Tristram, and have a smoke," my host interrupted in his bluff voice, putting his head in unexpectedly at the conservatory door. "I think I can offer you a capital Manilla."
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