"Anything—anything! You shall never hear from me again."
"You are going with this man!"
"There is no life so horrible that I would not prefer it to his presence," she said; "no death so shameful that it would not be heaven compared to seeing his face again."
There was a brief pause then; Mellen grasped her by the arm.
She thought he was about to kill her. She sank on her knees and a broken prayer rose to her lips. She would not have struggled; she would have knelt there and received death patiently from his hands.
"Do you think me lost and vile as yourself?" he cried, reading her thoughts in this gesture. "I do not want your life—do with it what you will! For my innocent sister's sake I will spare you—but go—go where I never can hear your name—let me have no reason to know that you exist! If you cross my path again, nothing shall keep me from exposing you to the whole world."
All at once, North came out from the shadows that had concealed his face, and stood before the man he had so foully wronged.
"Grantley Mellen," he said, "for your own sake, believe me. If this woman will not speak, I am not coward enough to keep silent."
Elizabeth stepped forward, her head raised, her eyes flashing.
"But I charge you—North or Ford, I charge you, make no defence for me. At your hand, neither he or I, will accept it. There has been no murder, there must be none. If this most wronged man grants us the mercy of silence, it is enough."