"To marry him."
"And you?"
"I was sorely frightened; but I told him that I would rather die than do this. I could not, you know, Roger, even though I did not know you cared aught for me."
"But you must have known I loved you, my dear."
"Sometimes I thought I did, and at others I could only—that is—even were I sure you did, I knew you would rather die than that I should wed him."
"Well, let us hear the rest of this," I said. "Surely Otho must have been attending the performances of some travelling showman, for such plots smack of a fourth-rate playhouse."
"He sorely frightened me, for he threatened to torture you; and you know what a cruel face he has."
"Well, and what was the end of it?" By this time my heart began to grow bitter towards Otho Killigrew, and had he been there at that moment it would have gone hard with him.
"He told me that you had been taken to a place of safety, and then asked me if I would allow him to take me there. He said it was the only condition on which he would show you any mercy."