Look at this ring, Natalie."
"Yes, yes," she said, breathlessly.
"That is a sufficient pledge, even if there were no others. I have sworn
allegiance to the Society at all hazards; I cannot retreat now."
"But is it so very terrible?" she said, hurriedly. "Dearest, I will
come over to you in America. I have told my mother; she will take me to
you--"
"I am not going to America, Natalie."
She looked up bewildered.
"I have been commissioned to perform another duty, more immediate, more
definite. And I must tell you now, Natalie, all that I dare tell you:
you must be prepared; it is a duty which will cost me my life!"
"Your life?" she repeated, in a bewildered, wild way, and she hastily
drew her hand away from his. "Your life?"
"Hush, Natalie!"
"You are to die!" she exclaimed, and she gazed with terror-stricken eyes
into his face. She forgot all about his allegiance to the Society; she
forgot all about her theories of self-sacrifice; she only heard that the
man she loved was doomed, and she said, in a low, hoarse voice, "And it
is I, then, who have murdered you!"
"Natalie!" he cried, and he would have taken her hand again, but she
withdrew from him, shuddering.
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