“I have.”
“You know, then, that I intend to drink the contents of that glass and end my life?” he said, looking straight at her.
“That was your intention, but it is my duty towards you, and towards humanity, to prevent such a catastrophe.”
“Then you really intend to prevent me?”
“That certainly is my intention,” she answered. Her clear eyes were upon him, and beneath her steady gaze he shrank and trembled.
“And if I live you will remain as witness of my agony, and of my degradation?” he said. “If I live you will gossip, and tell them of all that has escaped my lips, of my despair—of my contemplated suicide!”
“I have seen all, and I have heard all,” the girl answered. “But no word of it will pass my lips. With me your secret is sacred.”
“But how came you here at this hour?” he demanded in a fiercer tone.
“As I’ve already told you, I came to get a book before retiring, and the moment I had entered you came in. Because I feared to be discovered I hid behind the curtains.”
“You came here to spy upon me?” he cried angrily. “Come, confess the truth!”