"Taunts! they are true words every one, and I did warn thee before. If thou hadst given thyself to honest Roger, thou mightest have saved thy lover."
Linda's pale face flushed; she wrung her hands together; her eyes, that were sunken and hollow, flashed suddenly.
"Honest Roger, quotha! and he little better than a common assassin! I hated and feared him long ere I saw Hugh. Wouldst thou have had me betroth myself to a murderer?"
There was an answering flash in Lotta's eyes.
"To save the man I loved from death, I would have promised anything," she cried—"ANYTHING!"
"So would not I," answered Linda, drawing a deep sigh. "I dare not sware a falsehood—not even for his sake. Nor would he wish it of me. There are things worse than death."
"Ay, verily there be," answered Lotta significantly; "who knows but what thy dainty lover (as thou dost call him) may even now be suffering some such fate."
Linda started and gazed earnestly at her sister.
"Lotta, what meanest thou? Speak! What dost thou know?"
"I know nothing," was the dogged reply, and a hard gleam shone in Lotta's eyes.