"He explained it to me, Lina, and perhaps I should leave the story untold to you. Are you willing for me to do so?" he inquired.
Lina meditated a moment, then replied:
"I would prefer to hear it."
"Spoken like a true daughter of Eve," said her companion, with a slight smile. "Very well, Lina, I will do as you say, but I fear it will pain you to hear my story. And there is one thing you must promise me. You will tell no one else?"
"Yes, I will promise that," she replied.
"Listen to a bit of the outlaw's history, then," he said. "In the first place, his true name was not Gerald Huntington at all."
"Then what——" said Lina, and paused abruptly.
"It was an alias he adopted when he fell into evil and wicked courses. He belonged to a well-born family in France. He was not an American, Lina—he was French."
Lina's eyes were a little startled as she looked up at him; a sight pallor crept about her lips.
"He was the younger son of a man who was so severely just, Lina, and so proud and passionate, withal, that his children feared him instead of loving him. His eldest daughter ran away with a young American artist, and died under Virginian skies in only a few brief months. His younger son, maddened by the sternness and harshness of his only parent, also ran away to America. He fell into temptation, yielded blindly to evil, and cast aside forever, the noble name he had disgraced."