"Oh, Paul!" she cried, catching my arm, the name slipping out in her agitation.
I laid my hand on hers and took it gently into mine. She left it there.
"Did you really believe I would let you marry that brute? My dear, I would take his life first. This was all make-believe just now. I frightened him from having the marriage here--he thought I should kill him if he did--because it is necessary that I should be at his house to-night."
"But the danger to you?" she murmured.
"Is as straw to iron compared with the danger to him. To-day I could have spoken a word which would have brought him cringing to heel like the cur he is."
"Why didn't you?"
"Almost I spoke it, when he was blustering here. But I have a still better plan. Put away all your fears, and let me see a smile in place of all that pain and agitation. I tell you surely that by to-morrow all the clouds will have passed."
"I am only afraid for you," she whispered.
"And I--well, I will tell you when I have succeeded what other feeling than fear I have had about you in all this time."
Her answer was a smile, almost as if she knew.