"Our—our engagement," she faltered. She was white to the lips as she said the words.
I staggered back under the blow, then leaning forward I sought to take her hand.
"No, Jim, no!" she said. "It's no use; I can never be yours. It is impossible—quite impossible. My love would be fatal to you! I know it will! He said so."
"He?" I asked.
She faltered. "Oh! I cannot help believing him. He tells me that I am to be his." She shuddered. "Jim, you must leave me, and never see me again. I cannot have your—your blood on my hands."
She held out her slender white fingers, and I saw that the ring which I had placed there had been removed. Though my brain was awhirl, I tried my utmost to be calm. I think the effort was successful, and that my voice was fairly even when I said—
"Come, darling, a promise is a promise, and my own little girl is not going to break her promise because of the threats of a jealous rival."
She shuddered from head to foot. "You don't know him as I know him," she murmured. "He would stick at nothing, Jim. I don't think he is a man; he must be a devil. He can do things no man ever thought of doing."
"You exaggerate his capacities for evil," I said, as equably as I was able, for her agitation was so great that I feared for her reason. "What has Mannering been saying to you, for it was he whom I saw behind the hedge when I brought you out of the storm, I suppose?"
"You saw him?" she queried. "Then it is true. I have been hoping you would tell me I had been dreaming again."