"No, sir," she answered; "I shall not be contributing to your entertainment any more than I can help."
Murray addressed me.
"We are making a bargain with the lady, Master Ormerod. She is to renounce her objections to de Veulle, own herself mistaken in her feeling of affection for you—and you are to be permitted to escape when she has sealed her engagements."
"Do not think of it, Marjory," I called to her. "I mind this not at all. And fear not. Help will come to you."
A tinge of color showed in her cheeks, and she stepped to my side.
"I can not let you die, Harry," she said with a sob. "Indeed I will not be able to stand the thinking of it. Better anything—better marriage to this beast—than—than—that!"
"You are wrong," I urged her. "You must not. I should go mad if you did. I should hate myself! I——"
I twisted my head toward Ta-wan-ne-ars beside me.
"Bid her not, brother," I appealed to him. "Tell her I do not fear to pay the price! And why should I escape if you——"
His granite features softened as his eyes met hers. But before he could speak the scene shifted with startling rapidity. There was a bulge in the ring of False Faces, and Ga-ha-no burst into the group.