"That whatever happens to-day I can never leave my father—never as long as he lives."
"God forbid that you should be tempted to do so—but why?"
"That is what I cannot tell you. It is a secret."
"I can think of no secret that I could not share with you, Helena."
"Nor I with you—if it were my own—but this isn't."
"I cannot understand you, dear."
"Say it is somebody else's secret, and that his life, his career, depends upon it. Say it couldn't be told to you without putting you in a false position—involving you in responsibilities which you have no right to bear."
"You puzzle me, bewilder me, Helena."
"Then trust me, dear—trust me for the present at all events, and some day you shall know everything," she said; whereupon Gordon, who had not taken his eyes off her, said—
"So what it really comes to is this—that whatever course your father takes to-day I must take it also, under pain of a violent separation from you! Isn't that it, Helena? Isn't it? And if so, isn't it like sending a man into battle with his hands tied and his eyes blindfolded?"