"A dead man! Not Gillis?"
"No, it is not Gillis. I have told you this much so that you might
comprehend how impossible it is for us to change our fate. It is
irrevocably fixed. Please do not question me any more; cannot you see
how I am suffering? I beseech your pity; I beg you not to prolong this
useless interview. I cannot bear it!"
Brant rose to his feet, and stood looking down upon her bowed head, her
slender figure shaken by sobs. Whatever it might prove to be, this
mysterious shadow of a dead man, there could be no doubting what it now
meant to her. His eyes were filled with a love unutterable.
"Naida, as you have asked it, I will go; but I go better, stronger,
because I have heard your lips say you love me. I am going now, my
sweetheart, but if I live, I shall come again. I know nothing of what
you mean about a dead man being between us, but I shall know when I
come back, for, dead or alive, no man shall remain between me and the
girl I love."
"This--this is different," she sobbed, "different; it is beyond your
power."
"I shall never believe so until I have faced it for myself, nor will I
even say good-bye, for, under God, I am coming back to you.
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