“No.”
“Then you know nothing?”
“People do not commit such dark deeds before witnesses; but I fancy such evidence as I could give, if I chose, would hang any one.”
She shuddered convulsively—it was the first sign of actual fear she had shown.
“You surely can have no motive for interfering in the matter,” she said, after a long pause; and watching his face anxiously as she spoke.
“When I have warned you my part in the tragedy is played out, Lady Gwendolyn, so far as you are concerned. I shall have to appear at the inquest, of course; but I shall simply state there that I heard the poor man groan, and found him lying on the bank in a dying state.”
“And if they ask you if he spoke?”
“Then I shall tell a lie for the first time in my life,” he answered sternly. “I would not do it to save myself, but you——”
“Thank you,” she said, in a quiet, firm tone; “that was all I wanted to know. Perhaps one of these days you will understand things better than you do now, Colonel Dacre; meanwhile, I do not think you will reproach yourself much for what you have done this day—for—for”—hesitatingly—“things are not always as they seem. I don’t ask you to shake hands with me, although this is probably the last time we shall ever meet—and we were once friends—but I shall always remember you with gratitude.”
“And you will leave England at once?” he said, as the carriage stopped.