“Forgive me for telling you this horrible story!” he exclaimed. “I had no idea it would frighten you so! And yet, Lily, I shall not be sorry that I told you if it means that you will be careful——”
“I will be very careful,” she whispered.
And then they both turned, and walked slowly on. But so frightened, so shaken, was she by the story she had just heard that at last she had to take Beppo’s arm, and cling to it.
And always Lily will remember how very kind and considerate Beppo was to her during the half-hour that followed. The young man was puzzled and distressed. Somehow he had not realised that Lily was so sensitive! But he knew that there are people to whom the thought of any crime of violence is extraordinarily painful and disturbing. It was clear that this English girl, whom in his way he so truly loved, was one of them.
And then, suddenly, Lily took a desperate resolution. She felt she could not go back to La Solitude filled with such a hideous, agonising suspicion.
“Beppo,” she said pleadingly, “I want you to do me a great kindness. I want you to go on with me now to the Convalescent Home, and to arrange for my things to be sent on to me there this afternoon.”
She saw a look of surprise and discomfiture come over his face, and she went on, hastily:
“I feel so ill—I know I’m foolish, but I can’t help it, Beppo—that story you told me has made me feel sick and faint. If I were to go back with you now, Aunt Cosy would feel worried, and would ask me a lot of questions.”
He was impressed by the agitated way she spoke, and by her curious pallor.
“I will do as you wish, Lily,” he said in a soothing tone. “I am never at a loss for a good lie! I will say that we met one of the nurses and that she forced you to go back with her to see a girl friend just come out from England.”