n't reproach you,' I said, gently. 'I won't say this is a cruel
advantage to take of me, in such a position as mine. You are dreadfully
agitated; I will let you wait a little and compose yourself.'

"Having got as far as that, I stopped to consider how I should put the
questions to him that I was burning to ask. But I was too confused,
I suppose, or perhaps too impatient to consider. I let out what was
uppermost in my mind, in the words that came first.

"'I don't believe you love me,' I said. 'You write strange things to
me; you frighten me with mysteries. What did you mean by saying in your
letter that it would be fatal to Mr. Armadale if you came back to me?
What danger can there be to Mr. Armadale--?'

"Before I could finish the question, he suddenly lifted his head and
unclasped his arms. I had apparently touched some painful subject which
recalled him to himself. Instead of my shrinking from _him_, it was he
who shrank from _me_. I felt offended with him; why, I don't know--but
offended I was; and I thanked him with my bitterest emphasis for
remembering what was due to me, _at last_!

"'Do you believe in Dreams?' he burst out, in the most strangely abrupt
manner, without taking the slightest notice of what I had said to him.
'Tell me,' he went on, without allowing me time to answer, 'were you, or
was any relation of yours, ever connected with Allan Armadale's father
or mother? Were you, or was anybody belonging to you, ever in the island
of Madeira?'

"Conceive my astonishment, if you can. I turned cold. In an instant I
turned cold all over. He was plainly in the secret of what had happened
when I was in Mrs. Armadale's service in Madeira--in all probability
before he was born! That was startling enough of itself. And he had
evidently some reason of his own for trying to connect _me_ with those
events--which was more startling still.

"'No,' I said, as soon as I could trust myself to speak. 'I know nothing
of his father or mother.'

"'And nothing of the island of Madeira?'

"'Nothing of the island of Madeira.'

"He turned his head away, and began talking to himself.

"'Strange!' he said. 'As certainly as I was in the Shadow's place at the
window, _she_ was in the Shadow's place at the pool!'

"Under other circumstances, his extraordinary behavior might have
alarmed me. But after his question about Madeira, there was some greater
fear in me which kept all common alarm at a distance. I don't think I
eve