'Tell me, what am I to think?'
'Enough,' said she coldly; 'the words we have exchanged are most painful to us both.'
'They are agony to me, Ida. But say, were you in that arbour last night?'
'On the way to meet you, I was,' she replied, but with hesitation in her manner.
'And there you remained?'
'Oh, thrice I endeavoured to leave the arbour and keep my appointment with you, and then—then——'
She paused, and her voice died away upon her quivering lip.
'What? Speak, dearest Ida.'
'That strange magnetic influence, which I told you impels my actions and controls my movements, came over me like a species of drowsy sleep, and I remained till the time to meet you was long since past.'
'And he who had this influence over you—he who detained you,' said Vane, bitterly and incredulously.