"Everything except your great kindness to me. I shall never forget that, and I don't want to, either."
"I am so glad that I was able to rescue you from that brute. My only regret is that I was not near to save you from harm last night. If I had been there, that would not have happened," and he motioned to her wounded arm.
Nell turned her face quickly to his and her eyes expressed a great wonder.
"Why, how did you learn about that?" she enquired. "Who told you?"
"No one. I am an amateur Sherlock Holmes, and have drawn my own conclusions from what I have seen and surmised. Jean is jealous of you, and 'that way madness lies.' Am I not right?"
"You certainly are," and a tremour shook Nell's body as she recalled the incident of the previous evening. "Oh, it was terrible! Jean is so jealous of me. She thinks that I have taken Ben from her, and she would not believe a word I told her. She would listen to nothing, but said I was lying."
"And you were not?" Douglas eagerly asked.
"No. I simply told her the truth, and that Ben is nothing to me, and that I never tried to take him from her. But she would not believe me."
A feeling of wonderful rapture came into Douglas' soul as he listened to this candid confession. So Ben was nothing to Nell. It was almost too good to be true. There was hope for him.
"But you often met Ben by the tree over there, did you not?" he at length questioned. "It was there I first saw you when you played such sweet music. I remember he joined you that evening."