eem unkind ... but
you must see for yourself, good master, that we cannot go on as we are
doing now.... Whenever I go out, you follow me ... when I return I find
you waiting for me.... I have endeavored to think kindly of your
actions, but if you value my friendship, as you say you do, you will let
me go my way in peace."

"Nay! I humbly beg your ladyship's gracious forgiveness," he said; "if I
have transgressed, it is because I am blind to all save your ladyship's
future happiness, and at times the thought of that adventurer is more
than I can bear."

"You do yourself no good, Master Lambert, by talking thus to me of the
man I love and honor beyond all things in this world. You are blind and
see not things as they are: blind to the merits of one who is as
infinitely above you as the stars. But nathless I waste my breath
again.... I have no power to convince you of the grievous error which
you commit. But if you cared for me, as you say you do ..."

"If I cared!" he murmured, with a pathetic emphasis on that little word
"if."

"As a friend I mean," she rejoined still cold, still cruel, still
womanlike in that strange, inexplicable desire to wound the man who
loved her. "If you care for me as a friend, you will not throw yourself
any more in the way of my happiness. Now you may escort me home, an you
wish. This is the last time that I shall speak to you as a friend, in
response to your petty attacks on the man whom I love. Henceforth you
must chose 'twixt his friendship and my enmity!"

And without vouchsafing him another word or look, she gathered her cloak
more closely about her, and walked rapidly away along the narrow path.

He followed with head bent, meditating, wondering! Wondering!

CHAPTER XIII

AN IDEA

The triumph was complete. But of a truth the game was waxing dangerous.

Lady Sue Aldmarshe had promised to marry her prince. She would keep her
word, of that Sir Marmaduke was firmly convinced. But there would of
necessity be two or three days delay and every hour added to the
terrors, the certainty of discovery.

There was a watch-dog at Sue's heels, stern, alert, unyielding. Richard
Lambert was probing the secret of the mysterious prince, with the
unerring eye of the disappointed lover.

The meeting to-night had been terribly dangerous. Sir Marmaduke knew
that Lambert was lurking somewhere in the park.

At present even the remotest inkling of the truth must still be far from
the young