“And pray, madam, why not? It is not enough that I should be mewed up in this damned town with a couple of women and a mad Frenchman for my companions, but that I must have my actions spied upon and my coming and going brought in question. I have borne with you in patience, my good sister, but I will not let you spy upon me longer. There must be an end on´t.”
“You can speak no words that will make me fear you,” she said quietly. “I would have been your loyal and loving sister, but you know what I know, and if I can prevent it you shall not play the traitor longer. It is true that I have watched you, watched you day and night; and was there not need? Shall it be said that a Carew, for I know not what base reward, sold his honour and flung away his good name? Can Hamilton or Tyrconnell or James himself save you from this disgrace?”
“These are mad words,” he said doggedly; “I know not what you mean.”
“I am only a woman with a woman´s weakness, and I cannot turn you from your purpose. But before I had carried such a paper as I have seen you carry, I would have died a thousand times. Jasper,” she continued pleadingly, laying her hand on his arm, “It is not yet too late.”
“I was right after all, and it was you who set yon slow-witted coxcomb to lecture me with his mysterious threats. Now listen to me, Miss Carew; you have shown a more than sisterly interest in my affairs; and you may as well know it all. I have followed my own course, and laid my plans that I will suffer no woman to wreck with her whims and fancies. These beggarly citizens and these foolish country gentlemen are nothing to me. I stand by my lawful king, and on that side is my service and my interest, I have taken no great pains to conceal my thoughts, and perhaps to-morrow----” here he checked himself.
“Then go over to your friends.”
“It does not suit my purpose. Now I will give you a word of advice before I go. Make no more confidences for the future--they are dangerous for those who speak and for those who listen to them, and I will not have my acts questioned by you or others. For the paper you speak of, you may keep it now and it may prove useful hereafter, but for your friend I shall call him to a reckoning if I live. I think that hereafter you will keep my secret more closely, for it does not redound to the credit of the family that you should take the world into your confidence.”
He opened the door and stood looking at her threateningly; then he went out, drawing it noiselessly after him.
Though he had borne himself with a high hand, she could see that he had felt her words keenly, and that he was already fearful for his own safety. What course she should take she did not know, for she shrank from making his treachery public and from bringing punishment by any act of her own on the offender. It was clear that no entreaty nor expostulation of hers would have any weight with him; she knew his headlong and obstinate nature too well to hope that it might.
She remained standing for a long time lost in thought, and then she crept to her own room, wondering whether, after all, Gervase Orme might not keep his word. They had not renewed their conversation since the day that she had placed the pass in his hands, but she felt certain that he had not relaxed in his vigilance. And then it struck her suddenly that by this act she might have imperilled his safety, for her brother had already threatened him, and she knew that in this, at least, he would keep his word, if he had the power or the opportunity to injure him. She regretted now that she had not taken the initiative earlier herself, but on this she was determined, that she and her brother should not remain under the same roof, even if she was compelled publicly to denounce his crime. But she was saved the pain, for she never saw her brother again.