I placed my fingers on her lips for a moment, to prevent her once more repeating the oath that she might be trusted.
'Tell me,' she whispered.
I reflected a moment, then replied: 'Yes, I will tell you why it was absolutely necessary to find some one like you to-night, if you will first give me a promise to be my friend afterwards, and let me be yours?'
She promised. Then with a trembling voice I told her that night had brought a letter to me from my lover abroad, whom I had not seen for nearly ten years, and that in it he told me that he had at last earned enough to make us independent for the future, and that he was on his way home to marry me.
'And your trouble is that you haven't been true to him? You have gone wrong, and want to hide away, and'——
'I have been true to him, and I have nothing to hide. But—my happiness was so much more than I deserved—it was greater than I could bear, unless I could lighten some heavy heart to-night, and I shall always believe that I was led here to you.'
'Are you mad?'—struggling to free herself.
But I held fast. 'You promised—you promised!'
'More fool me. How can I be your friend? How can you be mine? What do you mean? Let me go.'
'No.'