“The situation is, for me, as perilous as it ever was. I am now convinced that what you have said regarding Marigold is right—she actually is my enemy, and yet I have foolishly taken her into my confidence!”
“But you are still hopeful?” I asked anxiously. “This man Logan has surely not refused to stand your friend?”
“He refuses to tell me certain facts which, if revealed, would place me in a position of safety,” she responded blankly.
“But he must be compelled!” I cried. “I will compel him.”
“Ah! you cannot,” she cried despairingly. “If you approach him, you will upset everything. He must not know of your visit to me. If he did it would be fatal—fatal.”
I held my breath, for had I not foolishly betrayed my presence to him on the previous night? And had he not cleverly tricked me? I hesitated whether to tell my love the bitter truth of my injudicious act, but at last resolved to do so, and explained the incident briefly, just as I have related it to you.
“Ah?” she exclaimed. “Then I fear that all I have arranged with him will be of no avail. He will now believe that I intend to play him false. My only hope now lies in Richard Keene.”
“Then I will return to him and act as you wish,” I said.
She stood thoughtfully looking out of the window for a long time. At last she said—
“I think it best, after all, to return to Sibberton. My aunt had a letter from George this morning asking her to join the house-party at once, and she seems anxious to do this and go to Lord Penarth’s afterwards.”