“That’s just it—I cannot tell it to you.”
“What! not even to your husband?”
“You are not my husband yet.”
“I shall be in a week; won’t you tell me your secret then?”
“Never—never on this side eternity.”
“Is it so bad as all that?”
“Yes, it is ghastly, terrible.”
Rowton gave vent to a long, significant whistle.
“Tell me what you can,” he said after a pause.
“I cannot say much, Adrian. After you left me last night, father sent for me. He made me promise to do something terrible. He bound me down on pain of his curse to carry on the work which he had not time to finish. I struggled to refuse, but he frightened me into compliance. He even threatened to return as a ghost to haunt me if I would not yield to his wishes.”