'Yes, tell me.'
'I cannot.'
'A secret.'
'Not strictly; some day I might, but not now.'
She shot a keen glance, suspicious by that heedless reservation that, after all, he was shrewdly playing his own game. He went on.
'With her your secret would be absolutely safe; and if her you would but include——'
'But I will not,' she said peremptorily, 'nor shall you take counsel with her, nor come back well charged for convincing me of what you may be pleased to call sin; for presently we part for ever—for ever, alive or dead.'
That struck silence for a minute. Then Christian straightened and said:
'I have then much to say first. I have a message to you.'
'To me—a message!'