“I know,” Grace interrupted, “we need not talk of that—”
“After making sure there was no one about, I went into the flower-garden, and concealing myself behind some shrubs, looked into the room where she generally sat. You know it, the small apartment adjoining the drawing-room. She was there alone; and when I tapped at the window, seeing who it was she came and undid the fastening for me.
“‘I must speak to you,’ I said. ‘Will you come out, or is it safe for me to speak to you here?’
“‘Quite safe,’ she answered, moving the candle so that no one from the outside could see me where I sat. ‘Now, what is the matter?’
“In a few words I told her what I suspected. She said I had guessed rightly.
“‘Are you not afraid,’ I asked, ‘of what may happen if Mr. Brady ever guesses it also?’
“‘No,’ she said; ‘I do not intend to wait for that.’
“‘Do you mean that at last—’ I began, scarcely able to believe the evidence of my senses, and in that very moment, when as it seemed all I had wished for was within my grasp, feeling a dull sick wish we had never met, that I had never loved, never tempted her.
“‘No, Mr. Hanlon,’ she answered; there was a composure and a peace about her I had never seen before; the hard restraint which usually characterized her was gone, and as she stood with the light streaming on her face, there was a hope which never previously shown in them gladdening her eyes. ‘No, Mr. Hanlon, I do not mean that, and some day you will be thankful for it. What I mean is this, John Riley has come home. He is in Ireland; I could trust my life in his hands. He will protect me; he will enable me to get free from my husband, and to keep my children all to myself. If you still wish to serve me, you can see him and repeat what I say; you can tell him all—all you have seen in this house, all you know I have gone through, and bid him find some way of helping me as I found a way of helping him and his.’
“We talked for a little time longer, and then I left her. As I was going she noticed what a heavy stick I carried, and asked with a smile such as had never lighted up her face in my knowledge of it, whether I was afraid of being stopped that I walked about with such a shillelagh.