"I believed he loved me; he said he loved me, and I was so unhappy. But he was, oh! so rough, so cruel. I hated him then!"
She stamped her foot and set her little teeth together, which made the heat rise in me again. I was sorry that my sword had not pricked deeper; the man who could plot evil against so fair a life as this deserved no pity.
"Think no more of him," I said. "You are now with me, and as safe in my keeping, if you will trust me, as in a nursery."
"I trust you—yes," she said; "you saved me."
"Ah," said I, "if I had such a sweet maid as you for sister!"
"I will be your sister," she said, smiling into my eyes.
"Then, dear sister, you will have a brother whose life is at your command."
"You have already risked it once."
"That was nothing, child; even my groom would have done as much."
She shook her curls in pretty disbelief, and my responsibility began to weigh upon me again. For, although all this was very pretty, and a game at which I could have spent hours, yet the carriage was still flying at top speed towards my destination, and if the lady would not tell me where she lived, what was I to do? In all my uncertainty, however, and in spite of the talk of sister, I was sure of one thing, and that was, that I would not marry my Cousin Audrey.