“To see me—to speak to me,” said he, stepping back, and letting the moonlight fall full upon his features, now pale as death; “it was not me you expected to meet here.”
“No, Mark, but it was for you I came; I wished to serve—perhaps to save you. I know your secret, Mark, but it is safe with me.”
“And I know yours, young lady,” retorted he, bitterly. “I cannot say how far my discretion will rival your own.”
As he spoke, a horseman darted rapidly past, and as he emerged from the shadow, turned round in his saddle, stared fixedly at the figures before him, and then taking off his hat, said—
“Good-night, Miss O'Donoghue.”
When Kate-recovered the shock of this surprise, she found herself alone—Mark had disappeared; and she now returned slowly to the castle, her heart torn with opposing emotions, among which wounded pride was not the least poignant.