“You have said a great many things to me there, Count Cadillac, if that be your own name, which I doubt.” There was a little frightened catch in her voice, which she strove to conceal by forcing herself to be insolent; but he heard it, and he knew that he had startled her.
“Miss Harlan,” he said rapidly, “this conversation is only the beginning of a very great deal that I have to say to you, and it is my duty to inform you, with all the emphasis at my command, before I attempt to say another word, that as long as you honor this vessel with your presence, with or against your own free will, you shall be treated in every way as an honored guest upon it. There will be no word or act said or done in your presence which can in any way offend your tenderest sensibilities. May I beg that you will believe me?”
There was so much sincerity in his voice that she believed him in spite of herself, and for a moment the conviction that she was free from the nameless horror of her position, which had already almost driven her mad, overcame her.
“Then why, why, why did you bring me here at all?” she cried.
She had forgotten the weapon she held in her hand, in that instant, and the muzzle drooped until it touched the table unheeded. It would have been an easy matter for him then, had he wished to do so, to have stepped forward and possessed himself of the weapon before she could have recovered it; but he did not move.
“Your question brings us back again to the one I just asked,” he said. “Shall I repeat it?”
If she heard him she did not heed, for she made no reply.
“Do you remember—don’t you remember that particular something I said to you at the time I refer to, when we were together as guests on Mr. Kane’s yacht?”
“You said very many things to me, Count Cadillac. I do not recall anything——”
“I told you that I loved you, Miss Harlan. I asked you to be my wife; and you did not entirely refuse me.”