"It would be no use now, Jasper," she said. "I should be followed and brought back."
"Why?" I asked.
"There is not time to tell you now," she said; "if you were known to be here you would never escape alive. Oh, Jasper, I am beset with danger; I have almost died in my sorrow."
"What time will your absence be discovered?" I asked.
"We are supposed to attend mass at seven o'clock," she said.
I looked at my watch, it only wanted a few minutes to that time.
"Tell me how you came here, and why you are surrounded by dangers?" I asked.
"I would not marry Nick Tresidder—I could not, Jasper; you know why now. He tried to force me, and when I refused, he told me you were dead. At first I did not believe him, and then one of my old servants from Trevose came and said you had died there." She told me this in a trembling voice, as though she were frightened, told me in broken sentences, which revealed to me more than the mere words could express.
"Yes; what then?" asked I, eagerly.