"You will not refuse to help me," she pleaded.
I set my teeth hard. I longed for Ray, but there were no signs of him.
"Your father has ordered you to break your engagement with Colonel Ray," I said, "but he has done so under a misapprehension of the facts. You owe obedience to your father, but you owe more—to—the man whose wife you have promised to be. I do not think you should give him up."
She listened eagerly. Was it my fancy, or was she indeed a little paler? Her eyes seemed to gleam with a strange softness in the twilight. Her head drooped a a little as she resumed her former thoughtful attitude.
"Thank you," she said, simply. "I believe that you are right."
I caught up a bundle of papers from my desk and stole softly from the room. Ray was close at hand, and I called to him.
"She is in there waiting for you," I said. "I have some transcribed matter, which I am taking up to the safe."
Ray nodded abruptly, and I heard the door of my cottage open and close behind him.