“Now, sir, kill me if you dare,” she cried. “You were bold enough with Frank. Let me see you face Ruby. Go away. I hate you now!”
Clark laughed carelessly as he advanced.
“You must explain away your masquerade, and a hundred other little things I mind me of, lady-bird, ere you can make me believe that. If you do not love me, what do you here with me, alone, at midnight?”
In a moment she was pale and beseeching.
“Let me go, Clark, and I’ll never tease you again.”
“Not till you have promised to marry me to-morrow, ere father Gibault departs.”
“I promise,” she whispered, and he unlocked the door.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CONCLUSION.
The month of July had passed and gone, and yet Ruby had not yet kept her promise to Clark. The reason partly was that father Gibault had already gone before the American commandant could inform him of the nature of his discovery, and of the need of his services, partly because Ruby herself begged off with unwonted humility, till father Gibault returned from St. Vincent’s.