"  Pardon  me,"  continued  the  knight,  "  I  fear  that  my  habits
of  life,  and  the  philosophy  in  which  I  have  been  schooled,
have  rendered  my  character  incomprehensible  to  a  person  as
single-hearted  and  pure-minded  as  yourself.  You  are  now  within
my  power."

"If  you  are  a  man,"  exclaimed  Esther,  "you  are  incapable  of
abusing  that  power."

"  If  I  were  not  a  man,"  coolly  resumed  the  knight,  "  perhaps
I  should  be.  You  are,  I  repeat  it,  absolutely  in  my  power.  I
am  a  man  bound  by  no  ties,  recognising  no  laws,  obeying  the
will  of  no  living  creature  but  my  own,  respecting  nothing,  fear
ing  nothing,  loving  nothing,  but  yourself."

"  May  God  in  his  wrath  blast  such  blasphemous  love !  "  said
Esther,  with  ungovernable  scorn.
MERRY-MOUNT.  207


"Your  hatred  keeps  pace  with  my  hourly  increasing  passion,"
resumed  the  knight;  "  fate  is  proverbially  perverse  to  lovers.
Let  me  then  waste  words  no  longer.  You  are,  at  this  moment,
the  mistress  of  your  destiny.  Let  me  remind  you  that,  upon
one  subject  in  times  gone  by,  there  was  sympathy  between  us.
To  be  the  creator  of  an  empire  in  the  desert,  was  a  great
thought,  which  created  the  same  lofty  emotion  in  your  bosom  as
in  my  own."

"You  know  better  even  than  myself,"  replied  Esther,  "that
pretence  of  sympathy  between  us  is  a  mockery,  but  most  of  all,
upon  the  subject  to  which  you  allude.  I  have  learned  to  despise
your  hypocrisy  and  falsehood  in  all  things,  in  nothing  more  than
this."

"  We,  perhaps,  have  contemplated  the  same  object  from  dif
ferent  points  of  view,"  continued  Gardiner,  "  but  let  that  pass.
