“But you will mention others, and they will mention Guy—don’t doubt that for a minute.” He turned suddenly toward her. “Promise me, Shannon, that you will not go—that you will not mention what you know to a living soul. I would rather go to the pen for twenty years than see Eva’s life ruined. You don’t know her. She’s gay and happy and frivolous on the outside; but deep within her is a soul of wondrous sensitiveness and beauty, which is fortified and guarded by her pride and her honor. Strike down one of these, and you will have given her soul a wound from which it may never recover. She can understand neither meanness nor depravity in men and women. Should she ever learn that Guy had been connected with this gang, and that the money upon which they were to start their married life was the fruits of his criminality, it would break her heart. I know that Guy isn’t criminally inclined, and that this will be a lesson that will keep him straight as long as he lives; but she wouldn’t look at it that way. Now do you see why you must not tell what you know?”
“Perhaps you are right, but it seems to me she would not suffer any more if Guy went than if her brother went. She loves you very much.”
“But she will know that I am innocent. If Guy went, she would know that he was guilty.”
Shannon had no answer to this, and they were silent for a while.
“You will help me to keep this from Eva?” he asked.
“Yes.”
She was thinking of the futility of her sacrifice, and wondering what explanation he was putting upon her knowledge of the activities of the criminals. He had said that there could be no reason in the world why a woman should have any dealings with such men, or any knowledge that would make dealings with them possible. What would he think of her if he knew the truth?
The man’s mind was a chaos of conflicting thoughts—the sudden realization of a love that was as impossible as it was unwelcome—recollection of his vows to Grace, which were as binding upon his honor as the marriage vows themselves would have been—doubts as to the character and antecedents of this girl who rode at his side to-day, and whose place in his life had suddenly assumed an importance beyond that of any other.
Then he turned a little, his eyes rested upon her profile, and he found it hard to doubt her.
Shannon felt his eyes upon her, and looked up.