"Ay; I have struggled long--long. Pride, resentment, jealousy--I have struggled fiercely with them; but all are forgotten in my unhappy love." He folded her to his heart, as in their happy days. "You depart to-morrow morning on your way to bring home your bride. I have seen your preparations; I have watched the movements of your retainers. No farewell was given me--no word offered of consolation--no last visit vouchsafed." It would seem that he could not gainsay her words, for he made no reply. "Know you how long it is since we met?" she continued; "how long--"
"Reproach me not," he interrupted. "I have suffered more than you, and, for a farewell visit, I did not dare to trust myself."
"And so this is to be the end of your enduring love, that you said was to be mine, and only mine, till death!"
"And before Heaven I spoke the truth. I have never loved--I never shall love but you. Yet, Gina, what would you have me do? I may not speak to you of marriage; and it is necessary to my position that I wed."
"_She_ is of your own rank, therefore you have wooed her?"
"And of my own faith. Difference in rank may be overcome; in faith, never."
"Oh that the time had come when God's children shall be all of one mind!" she uttered; "when the same mode of worship, and that a pure one, shall animate us all. In the later ages, this peace may be upon the earth."
"Would to the saints that it were now, Gina; or that you and I had never met."
"What! do _you_ wish it?" she contemptuously exclaimed; "you, who voluntarily sever yourself from me?"
"I have acted an honorable part, Gina," he cried, striding to and fro in his agitation.
"Ay, honorable. You were growing too dear to me, and I could not speak of marriage to you." There was a long pause. She was standing against one of the cypress-trees, the moon, through an opening above, casting its light upon her pure face, down which were coursing tears of anguish. "So henceforth we must be brother and sister," he whispered.
"Brother and sister," she repeated, in a moaning voice, pressing the cold tree against her aching temples.
"After awhile, Gina, when time shall have tamed our feelings down. Until then, we may not meet."
"Not meet!" she exclaimed, startled by the words into sudden pain. "Will you never come to see us? Shall we never be together again--like brother and sister, as you have just said?"