"You said so——"
"Impossible—utterly impossible! And you know it"—he drew a deep breath. "What—what are your real relations?"
"My—real—relations?" she gasped.
"Answer me now, before God! I'll hold your secret sacred—your life and his may depend on it"—his voice dropped to a tense whisper. "Your love is pure and unsullied?"
The girl's eyes flashed with rage:
"As pure and unsullied as his dead mother's for you!"
"Thank God!" he breathed. "I believe you—but I had to know, child! I had to know—there are big, terrible reasons why I had to know."
A tear slowly stole down Helen's flushed cheeks as she quietly asked:
"Why—why should you insult and shame me by asking that question?"
"My knowledge of your birth."