The work of weeks is soon recorded, and when another month was gonethese were the changes it had wrought. The four so strangely boundtogether by ties of suffering and sin went on their way, to the world'seye, blessed with every gracious gift, but below the tranquil surfacerolled that undercurrent whose mysterious tides ebb and flow in humanhearts unfettered by race or rank or time. Gilbert was a good actor,but, though he curbed his fitful temper, smoothed his mien, andsweetened his manner, his wife soon felt the vanity of hoping to recoverthat which never had been hers. Silently she accepted the fact and,uttering no complaint, turned to others for the fostering warmth withoutwhich she could not live. Conscious of a hunger like her own, Manuelcould offer her sincerest sympathy, and soon learned to find a troubledpleasure in the knowledge that she loved him and her husband knew it,for his life of the emotions was rapidly maturing the boy into the man,as the fierce ardors of his native skies quicken the growth of wondrousplants that blossom in a night. Mrs. Redmond, as young in character asin years, felt the attraction of a nature generous and sweet, andyielded to it as involuntarily as an unsupported vine yields to the windthat blows it to the strong arms of a tree, still unconscious that awarmer sentiment than gratitude made his companionship the sunshine ofher life. Pauline saw this, and sometimes owned within herself that shehad evoked spirits which she could not rule, but her purpose drove heron, and in it she found a charm more perilously potent than before.Gilbert watched the three with a smile darker than a frown, yet noreproach warned his wife of the danger which she did not see; no jealousdemonstration roused Manuel to rebel against the oppression of apresence so distasteful to him; no rash act or word gave Pauline powerto banish him, though the one desire of his soul became the discovery ofthe key to the inscrutable expression of her eyes as they followed theyoung pair, whose growing friendship left their mates alone. Slowly hermanner softened toward him, pity seemed to bridge across the gulf thatlay between them, and in rare moments time appeared to have retraced itssteps, leaving the tender woman of a year ago. Nourished by suchunexpected hope, the early passion throve and strengthened until itbecame the mastering ambition of his life, and, only pausing to makeassurance doubly sure, he waited the advent of the hour when he could"put his fortune to the touch and win or lose it all."

"Manuel, are you coming?"

He was lying on the sward at Mrs. Redmond's feet, and, waking from thereverie that held him, while his companion sang the love lay he wasteaching her, he looked up to see his wife standing on the green slopebefore him. A black lace scarf lay over her blonde hair as Spanish womenwear their veils, below it the violet eyes shone clear, the cheek glowedwith the color fresh winds had blown upon their paleness, the lipsparted with a wistful smile, and a knot of bright-hued leaves upon herbosom made a mingling of snow and fire in the dress, whose white foldsswept the grass. Against a background of hoary cliffs and somber pines,this figure stood out like a picture of blooming womanhood, but Manuelsaw three blemishes upon it - Gilbert had sketched her with that shadowyveil upon her head, Gilbert had swung himself across a precipice toreach the scarlet nosegay for her breast, Gilbert stood beside her withher hand upon his arm; and troubled by the fear that often haunted himsince Pauline's manner to himself had grown so shy and sad, Manuelleaned and looked forgetful of reply, but Mrs. Redmond answeredblithely:

"He is coming, but with me. You are too grave for us, so go your ways,talking wisely of heaven and earth, while we come after, enjoying bothas we gather lichens, chase the goats, and meet you at the waterfall.Now señor, put away guitar and book, for I have learned my lesson; sohelp me with this unruly hair of mine and leave the Spanish for today."

They looked a pair of lovers as Manuel held back the long locks blowingin the wind, while Babie tied her hat, still chanting the burthen of thetender song she had caught so soon. A voiceless sigh stirred the ruddyleaves on Pauline's bosom as she turned away, but Gilbert embodied it inwords, "They are happier without us. Let us go."

Neither spoke till they reached the appointed tryst. The others were notthere, and, waiting for them, Pauline sat on a mossy stone, Gilbertleaned against the granite boulder beside her, and both silentlysurveyed a scene that made the heart glow, the eye kindle with delightas it swept down from that airy height, across valleys dappled withshadow and dark with untrodden forests, up ranges of majestic mountains,through gap after gap, each hazier than the last, far out into that seaof blue which rolls around all the world. Behind them roared thewaterfall swollen with autumn rains and hurrying to pour itself into therocky basin that lay boiling below, there to leave its legacy ofshattered trees, then to dash itself into a deeper chasm, soon to behaunted by a tragic legend and go glittering away through forest, field,and intervale to join the river rolling slowly to the sea. Won by thebeauty and the grandeur of the scene, Pauline forgot she was not alone,till turning, she suddenly became aware that while she scanned the faceof nature her companion had been scanning hers. What he saw there shecould not tell, but all restraint had vanished from his manner, allreticence from his speech, for with the old ardor in his eye, the oldimpetuosity in his voice, he said, leaning down as if to read her heart,"This is the moment I have waited for so long. For now you see what Isee, that both have made a bitter blunder, and may yet repair it. Thosechildren love each other; let them love, youth mates them, fortune makesthem equals, fate brings them together that we may be free. Accept thisfreedom as I do, and come out into the world with me to lead the lifeyou were born to enjoy."

With the first words he uttered Pauline felt that the time had come, andin the drawing of a breath was ready for it, with every sense alert,every power under full control, every feature obedient to the art whichhad become a second nature. Gilbert had seized her hand, and she did notdraw it back; the sudden advent of the instant which must end her worksent an unwonted color to her cheek, and she did avert it; theexultation which flashed into her eyes made it unsafe to meet his own,and they drooped before him as if in shame or fear, her whole face wokeand brightened with the excitement that stirred her blood. She did notseek to conceal it, but let him cheat himself with the belief that lovetouched it with such light and warmth, as she softly answered in a voicewhose accents seemed to assure his hope.

"You ask me to relinquish much. What do you offer in return, Gilbert,that I may not for a second time find love's labor lost?"

It was a wily speech, though sweetly spoken, for it reminded him howmuch he had thrown away, how little now remained to give, but her mieninspired him, and nothing daunted, he replied more ardently than ever:

"I can offer you a heart always faithful in truth though not in seeming,for I never loved that child. I would give years of happy life to undothat act and be again the man you trusted. I can offer you a name whichshall yet be an honorable one, despite the stain an hour's madness castupon it. You once taunted me with cowardice because I dared not face theworld and conquer it. I dare do that now; I long to escape from thisdisgraceful servitude, to throw myself into the press, to struggle andachieve for your dear sake. I can offer you strength, energy, devotion - three gifts worthy any woman's acceptance who possesses power to direct,reward, and enjoy them as you do, Pauline. Because with your presencefor my inspiration, I feel that I can retrieve my faultful past, andwith time become God's noblest work - an honest man. Babie never couldexert this influence over me. You can, you will, for now my earthly hopeis in your hands, my soul's salvation in your love."

If that love had not died a sudden death, it would have risen up toanswer him as the one sincere desire of an erring life cried out to herfor help, and this man, as proud as sinful, knelt down before her with apassionate humility never paid at any other shrine, human or divine. Itseemed to melt and win her, for he saw the color ebb and flow, heard therapid beating of her heart, felt the hand tremble in his own, andreceived no denial but a lingering doubt, whose removal was a keensatisfaction to himself.

"Tell me, before I answer, are you sure that Manuel loves Babie?"

"I am; for every day convinces me that he has outlived the briefdelusion, and longs for liberty, but dares not ask it. Ah! that prickspride! But it is so. I have watched with jealous vigilance and let nosign escape me; because in his infidelity to you lay my chief hope. Hashe not grown melancholy, cold, and silent? Does he not seek Babie and,of late, shun you? Will he not always yield his place to me without atoken of displeasure or regret? Has he ever uttered reproach, warning,or command to you, although he knows I was and am your lover? Can youdeny these proofs, or pause to ask if he will refuse to break the tiethat binds him to a woman, whose superiority in all things keeps him asubject where he would be a king? You do not know the heart of man ifyou believe he will not bless you for his freedom."

Like the cloud which just then swept across the valley, blotting out itssunshine with a gloomy shadow, a troubled look flitted over Pauline'sface. But if the words woke any sleeping fear she cherished, it wasperemptorily banished, for scarcely had the watcher seen it than it wasgone. Her eyes still shone upon the ground, and still she prolonged thebittersweet delight at seeing this humiliation of both soul and body byasking the one question whose reply would complete her sad success.

"Gilbert, do you believe I love you still?"

"I know it! Can I not read the signs that proved it to me once? Can Iforget that, though you followed me to pity and despise, you haveremained to pardon and befriend? Am I not sure that no other power couldwork the change you have wrought in me? I was learning to be contentwith slavery, and slowly sinking into that indolence of will which makessubmission easy. I was learning to forget you, and be resigned to holdthe shadow when the substance was gone, but you came, and with a lookundid my work, with a word destroyed my hard-won peace, with a touchroused the passion which was not dead but sleeping, and have made thismonth of growing certainty to be the sweetest in my life - for I believedall lost, and you showed me that all was won. Surely that smile ispropitious! and I may hope to hear the happy confirmation of my faithfrom lips that were formed to say 'I love!'"

She looked up then, and her eyes burned on him, with an expression whichmade his heart leap with expectant joy, as over cheek and foreheadspread a glow of womanly emotion too genuine to be feigned, and hervoice thrilled with the fervor of that sentiment which blesses life andoutlives death.

"Yes, I love; not as of old, with a girl's blind infatuation, but withthe warmth and wisdom of heart, mind, and soul - love made up of honor,penitence and trust, nourished in secret by the better self whichlingers in the most tried and tempted of us, and now ready to blossomand bear fruit, if God so wills. I have been once deceived, but faithstill endures, and I believe that I may yet earn this crowning gift of awoman's life for the man who shall make my happiness as I make his - whoshall find me the prouder for past coldness, the humbler for past pride - whose life shall pass serenely loving. And that beloved is - myhusband." If she had lifted her white hand and stabbed him, with thatsmile upon her face, it would not have shocked him with a more paledismay than did those two words as Pauline shook him off and rose up,beautiful and stern as an avenging angel. Dumb with an amazement toofathomless for words, he knelt there motionless and aghast. She did notspeak. And, passing his hand across his eyes as if he felt himself theprey to some delusion, he rose slowly, asking, half incredulously, halfimploringly, "Pauline, this is a jest?"

"To me it is; to you - a bitter earnest."

A dim foreboding of the truth fell on him then, and with it a strangesense of fear; for in this apparition of human judgment he seemed toreceive a premonition of the divine. With a sudden gesture of somethinglike entreaty, he cried out, as if his fate lay in her hands, "How willit end? how will it end?"

"As it began - in sorrow, shame and loss." Then, in words that fell hotand heavy on the sore heart made desolate, she poured out the darkhistory of the wrong and the atonement wrung from him with such pitilesspatience and inexorable will. No hard fact remained unrecorded, nosubtle act unveiled, no hint of her bright future unspared to deepen thegloom of his. And when the final word of doom died upon the lips thatshould have awarded pardon, not punishment, Pauline tore away the lastgift he had given, and dropping it to the rocky path, set her foot uponit, as if it were the scarlet badge of her subjection to the evil spiritwhich had haunted her so long, now cast out and crushed forever.

Gilbert had listened with a slowly gathering despair, which deepened tothe blind recklessness that comes to those whose passions are theirmasters, when some blow smites but cannot subdue. Pale to his very lips,with the still white wrath, so much more terrible to witness than thefiercest ebullition of the ire that flames and feeds like a sudden fire,he waited till she ended, then used the one retaliation she had lefthim. His hand went to his breast, a tattered glove flashed white againstthe cliff as he held it up before her, saying, in a voice that rosegradually till the last words sounded clear above the waterfall's wildsong:

"It was well and womanly done, Pauline, and I could wish Manuel a happylife with such a tender, frank, and noble wife; but the future which youpaint so well never shall be his. For, by the Lord that hears me! Iswear I will end this jest of yours in a more bitter earnest than youprophesied. Look; I have worn this since the night you began theconflict, which has ended in defeat to me, as it shall to you. I do notwar with women, but you shall have one man's blood upon your soul, for Iwill goad that tame boy to rebellion by flinging this in his face andtaunting him with a perfidy blacker than my own. Will that rouse him toforget your commands and answer like a man?"

"Yes!"

The word rang through the air sharp and short as a pistol shot, aslender brown hand wrenched the glove away, and Manuel came betweenthem. Wild with fear, Mrs. Redmond clung to him. Pauline sprang beforehim, and for a moment the two faced each other, with a year's smolderingjealousy and hate blazing in fiery eyes, trembling in clenched hands,and surging through set teeth in defiant speech.

"This is the gentleman who gambles his friend to desperation, and skulksbehind a woman, like the coward he is," sneered Gilbert.

"Traitor and swindler, you lie!" shouted Manuel, and, flinging his wifebehind him, he sent the glove, with a stinging blow, full in hisopponent's face.

Then the wild beast that lurks in every strong man's blood leaped up inGilbert Redmond's, as, with a single gesture of his sinewy right arm heswept Manuel to the verge of the narrow ledge, saw him hang poised thereone awful instant, struggling to save the living weight that weighed himdown, heard a heavy plunge into the black pool below, and felt thatthrill of horrible delight which comes to murderers alone.

So swift and sure had been the act it left no time for help. A rush, aplunge, a pause, and then two figures stood where four had been - a manand woman staring dumbly at each other, appalled at the dread silencethat made high noon more ghostly than the deepest night. And with thatmoment of impotent horror, remorse, and woe, Pauline's long punishmentbegan.