“My lover!” she cried, hysterically.
“Now, will you lie down quietly, and let me bandage your ankle, or must I stupefy you with chloroform?”
“You shall do nothing until you have listened to me,” she cried, wildly. “He is not my lover. I never had a lover, Pierce. I went there to-night to tell him to go away, for I was afraid for you to meet him. I shivered with dread, you were so wild and strange.”
“Were you afraid I should kill him,” he said, with an angry glare in his eyes.
“Yes, or that he might kill you. Pierce, dear, if I have deceived you, it was because I loved you, and I was fighting your fight.”
Indeed! he said, bitterly.
“He has been watching for me, and coming here constantly ever since we came to the house. I couldn’t go down the village, or for a walk without his meeting me. He has made my life hateful to me.”
“And you could not appeal to your brother for help and protection?”
“I was going to, dear, but matters happened so that I determined to be silent. No, no, don’t touch me till you have heard all. I found how you loved poor Kate.”
“Will you be silent!” he raged out.