"I know she is, and I intend to prove her so," I replied with confidence. "When she and I meet again we have an account to settle. You will see."
"Ah! Teddy, beware of her! She's a dangerous woman—highly dangerous," declared my love apprehensively. "You don't know her as I do—you do not know the grave evil and utter ruin she has brought upon others. So I beg of you to be careful not to be entrapped."
"Have others been entrapped, then?" I asked with great curiosity.
"I don't know. No. Please don't ask me," she protested. "I don't know."
Her response was unreal. My well-beloved was I knew in possession of some terrible secret which she dared not betray. Yet why were her lips sealed? What did she fear?
"I intend to find Digby, and demand the truth from him," I said after we had been silent for a long time. "I will never rest until I stand before him face to face."
"Ah! no dear!" she cried in quick alarm, starting up and flinging both her arms about my neck. "No, don't do that?" she implored.
"Why not?"
"Because he will condemn me—he will think you have learned something from me," she declared in deep distress.
"But I shall reveal to him my sources of information," I said. "Since that fatal night I have learned that the man whom I believed was my firm friend has betrayed me. An explanation is due to me, and I intend to have one."