Keith Kenyon turned, and his dark eyes met the frightened gaze of Beatrix.
What was that which he read in those timid, trusting eyes lifted to his face with a shy look? Was it love?
With a low cry of rapture, he sprang to her side and caught the girl's slight form in his arms.
"Beatrix! Beatrix!" he whispered, passionately, "we have not long known each other, but I love you! I think I have loved you ever since our first meeting, when you risked your precious life to save mine—long before I suspected the truth—that you were the young girl whom I was sent to escort to this place—this cursed place where I wish you had never come. I love you, darling—love you with all my heart. Be my wife at once, Beatrix, and we will leave this place. Let Bernard Dane keep his money; we do not want it. I am strong, and can work for us both. Say yes, Beatrix, darling—say yes! For surely no man ever loved a woman as I love you."
And then he stopped short, and his heart grew faint and cold within his breast.
He had forgotten that he was Serena Lynne's promised husband, that he was bound in honor to make Serena Lynne his wife.