"Here is the locket," I said. "I came from England to California to serve Miss Cunningham's interests, and I will not lay my hand upon her brother."
"I don't know what you mean," he said, sullenly.
"I'll tell you," I returned, "if you'll sit down here and listen to me for a few minutes longer. After that, as far as I am concerned, you are free to do as you choose. You look surprised–but whatever may have been your faults and your offences, I would stake my life you love your sister."
"She is the only being on earth I do love," he replied, still half dazedly.
Then he sat down, his eyes furtively on me, and I seated myself beside him.
"She is sacrificing herself for someone," I remarked. "I think I begin dimly to understand now who that someone may be. I think, too, that circumstances have given me the right to be inquisitive, as I can still further explain to you later on. Is Miss Cunningham going to marry Carson Wildred to save you from any unpleasant consequences of the past, for instance?"
He started as though he had been struck.
"She is not going to marry Carson Wildred!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, yes, she is, unless it can be prevented. I see I have even more to tell you than I thought. Is it long, may I ask, since you have seen your sister?"
"Last November," he said drooping his head, and bringing under my eyes again the hair that was like hers.