"You know it will. But promise me one thing."
"You can't ask me anything, Lily, that I will not promise," he said, hailing this small token of confidence with gladness.
"Give me your sacred word of honour that you will not return here to-night unless my brother is with you."
He felt that he had no alternative; but the fear that she wished to escape from him was upon him. In the light of this fear she became more than ever precious in his eyes. Urged to the desperate declaration, he said,
"Lily, listen to me. You know that I love you--that I love you honourably."
"If you do," she interrupted bravely, but with her hand on her heart, "you cannot hesitate to give me the promise I ask."
"But you! What will you do?"
"I shall stop here in the hope of seeing my brother."
"I can depend on that? You will stop here to-night?"
"I will--by all that I hold dear!"