"My dear Geoffrey, you don't want to hear my explanation!"
"Not if it causes you the least pain or annoyance. I couldn't do it."
Marion laughed. But there was little of the music of mirth in her voice.
"Never be it said again that man is a curious creature," she said. "You find me down in the vaults of the castle at midnight mixed up with murderers and worse; you compel me to disclose my identity and take me prisoner; you force me to plead for mercy and silence. And now you calmly say you don't want to know anything about it! Geoffrey, are you indifferent to myself and my future that you speak like this?"
Geoffrey laid his hand on the speaker's arm tenderly.
"Marion," he said, "it is because I think so highly of you and trust you so implicitly that I am going to ask no questions. Can you be any the worse because you are bound by some tie to that woman yonder? Certainly not. Rest assured that your secret is safe in my hands."
"But I must tell you certain things, Geoff. There is some one who comes to the castle, a friend of Uncle Ralph's, who is an enemy of this—of Mrs. May's. I don't know whether you know the man—his name is Tchigorsky?"
No muscle of Geoffrey's face moved.
"I fancy I have heard the name," he said. "When does he come here?"
"I—I don't know. Secretly and at night, I expect. Oh, if I could only tell you everything! But I cannot, I dare not. If this Mr. Tchigorsky would only go away! I fear that his presence here will eventually endanger Uncle Ralph's life. You may, perhaps, give him a hint to that effect. Between Mrs. May and Tchigorsky there is a blood feud. It has been imported from Tibet. I can't say any more."