Her tired eyelids fluttered upwards. “Mr Markham had it.”
“That scoundrel! He gave it to you?” Sir Humphrey’s voice was sharp with anxiety. “Good God, child, don’t tell me — ” He broke off, afraid to put his dread into words.
“He said — he said he would expose you unless I would elope with him again. I could not think of a way out.” She clasped her hands nervously in her lap. “He said if I told you he would publish the letter. There seemed to be nothing I could do. I was to fly with him tonight: I did not want to, papa! I have been so miserable! We reached as far as to Finchley Common, and then — ” She stopped, and after a moment’s hesitation leaned forward in her chair. “Papa, if I tell you the truth, will you promise to keep it secret? I am bound to divulge nothing, but I must tell you. He could not have meant me not to tell you. If I don’t you could never understand. But you must keep it secret, papa, or I may not tell you!”
He put the letter into the fire, and watched it shrivel, and burn. “Hush, child! My poor girl, you suffer for my folly, but that villain imposed on you. There was not enough in that paper to send me to the gallows.”
“Was there not?” she had but a faint interest in it now. “I did not know. But you do not promise, papa! you do not promise!”
He sat down beside her and took her hand. “What is this secret? You won’t tell without my promise? Why then, I must give it you. Don’t keep aught back from me, Letty!”
“I must go back so far,” she said hurriedly. “As far as to the masked ball my Lady Dorling gave. You remember?” The whole story came tumbling out, and ended with the Unknown’s reappearance this evening.
Sir Humphrey was thunderstruck. A gasp escaped him at the tale of the duel; he put a quick question or two, and seemed to be almost incredulous. When his daughter came to the end he rose up from his chair, and took a turn about the room, his hands linked behind his back.
“Markham dead!” he ejaculated several times. “Good God, the scandal!”
“I know, I know, but I could not help it, papa!”