Gabrielle's tears were stayed now. She drew her hand away from him.
"You are--you are enemies now?" she asked.
"I have long been Raven's opponent. Do not ask me why. I will not accuse your guardian and relative to you. The charges against him must be brought before another forum. But, believe me, he has challenged hatred and enmity in many quarters. He has so used his power that it has proved baneful to all beneath his rule, and will, assuredly, one day prove baneful to himself. It is a mistake on his part to thrust me thus, with his own hand, forth from the magic circle that surrounds his person, far from the fascination which has held me, as it holds so many others, in chains, and from which I could not escape, though I felt it crippled my strength and relaxed my will. Dr. Brunnow did not warn me in vain against the magnetic influence of that strange man. It has often beguiled me into admiring there where I should have condemned. But now the spell is broken. Yonder, in the great city, I shall be released from the ties which have hitherto bound me to the superior officer under whose immediate orders I stood."
"What do you mean?" asked Gabrielle, uneasily. "I do not understand your allusions."
"It is not meet you should," said George, firmly; "but promise me one thing. Whatever you may hear, believe that no personal enmity, no base desire for revenge, has prompted me to action. Long ago I resolved I would take up the glove against the Governor of our province, for taken up it must be; and there was no one else who ventured to enter the lists with the omnipotent Raven. I had my arms ready. Then I learned to know you. I heard that the man I was intending to fight to the death held my life's happiness in his hands--and my courage failed me. It may have been cowardly and wrong, but I should like to see the man who in my place would have acted differently, who would have had nerve, himself, at a single blow, to destroy life's fair promise, and all the bright hopes which had just blossomed for him. Now they are blighted. Your guardian, with unnecessary harshness, has refused me your hand, has refused me even a glimmer of hope in the future--he who, when he paid his court to the great Minister's daughter, had no more to offer than I have! Was it strange that we parted as open enemies? For the time to come, I will be guided by that alone which I deem duty. And now--farewell!"
Gabrielle held him back.
"George, you cannot, must not leave me so--not with these vague menaces which distress me unspeakably. What are you thinking of doing? I must and will know."
"Do not ask me to speak more openly," said the young man, in gentle but decided tones. "For your own sake, I will not make you privy to my intentions. You are not free, as I am. You must remain here under the same roof with your guardian; you are thrown into daily intercourse with him. It would be a constant burden on you, were you to share even in thought in any----"
"In any plot against him?" cried Gabrielle; and there was so strange, so vibrating a ring in her voice, that George started.
"Against Baron von Raven, you mean?" he asked slowly. "You do not suspect me of anything dishonourable?"