"Forgive me, again, Minnie—forgive me; I am a very wretched man, loving you as I love you, and——" He paused.
"And what? my own husband."
"Never mind, Minnie—never mind! You will not, will you? Oh! promise me you will not." He was speaking to his thoughts.
"Any thing, Miles!" she answered, old fears of his perfect sanity making her shudder. "What is it you wish me to promise?"
"Never to forsake me, come what may; be your feelings towards me what they may, hide them, Minnie; let me be deceived if you will, but never let me see it; and oh! do not forsake me, or I shall go mad!"
She could not answer. Her tears were frozen by fear. She really thought him deranged; and so he was—that worst madness—jealousy. For the overwrought mind was not fighting with idle fancies, evanescent as vain; but with a cold, tangible reality, built on many a doubt and distorted act or word of hers, and still worse on the letters of his anonymous correspondent, whose last letter, received that morning, ran thus—
"If you wish to verify all, leave home early, professedly for the day, and watch your house; be in readiness to follow, and you will need no further proof or admonition to enable you to convince yourself. A hired brougham will be at the end of your lane. The driver, ignorant of all, will place himself at your disposal, on your giving the name of—'Gray,' as well as another—'twill keep him in your memory.
"Your sincere, but unsuspected Friend."
And Miles was resolved at last to have proof, or else never again suspect—never read another letter, but burn them unopened.
"You do not speak," he said, again drawing her, shrinking from terror, close to his heart, by the arm which clasped her. "Poor child—poor Minnie! I have frightened you; forget it, my child, I am unfitting for so frail a thing as you. I should have mated with my own kind, something lion-born, and you—you with——Minnie," he cried, changing his tone suddenly, and looking full in her face with his dark, gloomy eyes, "you should have married such a man as Lord Randolph Gray, and have led a life of luxury and peace. He would never have terrified you, as I do; I think you would have been very happy—I think he loves you, Minnie."
The suddenness of the words, his change of manner, all combined to call the warm blood to her cheek.