"I will promise to say nothing to any one until you know all the truth, and that you shall be the judge yourself. Will you be content with that?"
"I will!"
"And there is a promise that I have to demand of you in return."
"I am ready to make it!"
"Then say nothing of what you have discovered to-day regarding my sex to any one! I have reasons for wishing to preserve myself from recognition, and there is little hope for me unless I preserve the costume that I have assumed. If I am forced to leave here, as I should be were it known that I am not a boy, Heaven knows into what a position I might be thrown."
"I promise. You will not refuse to allow me to see you sometimes? You will not refuse to grant me——"
"It is better not!" she interrupted, sorrowfully. "There is nothing that can ever lift the barrier that lies between you and me, Mr. Pyne. That is as irrevocable as death itself. I am not saving you from Evelyn Chandler to secure you for myself. The reason that makes it almost a crime that she should be your wife, extends to me, and though I have brought you sorrow, I will never bring you disgrace. When you are here I shall find a pretext for remaining out of your presence, for it is much better that we should not meet! You believe that, do you not?"
"I beg that you will——"
"I am deaf to your words. You know where to find me; you know where I shall remain, unless the object that I have in view requires that I shall go elsewhere; but unless necessity demands it, I beg that you will not seek me. I will come to you when I have discovered the proofs that are necessary."
She left the room as she ceased speaking without a backward glance, turning a deaf ear to his pleading tones, and walked unsteadily up the stairs to her own room.