"I have no wish to trouble you, Azuba—— Oh, pardon, that name was a slip of the tongue! What do you call yourself now?"
"Simply Kate Erroll—Miss Erroll to all. I have a right to that name. It was my mother's before she was married. But I cannot stay to talk to you now. I must go; but keep my secret, will you, Clifford Standish?"
"What if I refuse?" he demanded, and she answered, quickly:
"You could not injure me without bringing down harm upon yourself;" and with that vague threat the handsome governess fled by another door just as Mrs. Fitzgerald entered, a sombre object in the long, trailing black robes of widowhood.
She bowed to him with a sort of cold expectancy. Calling all his native effrontery to his aid, he rose, and said, theatrically:
"Mrs. Fitzgerald, I have come to plead with you to sanction my engagement to your daughter, Geraldine. We love each other devotedly, and it would break our loving hearts to be separated. You may think, perhaps, that I am no mate for your daughter, because you are rich; but that is a great mistake. I am an actor, I own, but I am paid a magnificent salary. My mother is very rich, and makes me a handsome allowance. At her death—and she cannot live much longer, being quite old and frail—I shall inherit her large fortune and can support my wife in grand style."
[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
ENEMIES AT BAY.
"Punishment o'ertakes the transgression,
In time;
Fate compels a full confession,
In time.
None can safely sin forever—
Conscience leaves the bosom never—
It will crush guilt's best endeavor,
In time."