armer climate, and that accordingly upon her marriage she and her
husband would set sail for the Bermudas, there to take up their abode
till her health was quite restored. I doubted my ears; I doubted the
facts; I doubted Urquhart, and I doubted one other most of all whose
name I find it hard to mention even to myself.

"Yet I should not have doubted her; I should have remembered the flame
that was always burning in the depths of her eyes, and had confidence
in that, if in nothing else. What if she had always been cold to me; she
was not cold to him, and I should have known this and prepared myself.
But I did not. I knew neither the extent of his villainy nor that of her
despair. Had I done so, I might not have been crouching here a
disappointed and hopeless man, while she--

"But I am running beyond my tale. After the news I had just imparted, I
heard nothing more till the very week of the wedding. Then one of Miss
Dudleigh's servants came to me with a note, the result of which was,
that I walked out in the afternoon, and that she passed me in her
carriage, and seeing me, stopped the horses and took me in, and that we
rode on a short distance together.

"'I wish to talk to you,' she said. 'I wish to proffer you a request; to
beg of you a favor. I want you,' she stammered and her eyes filled with
tears, 'to see me married.'

"I opened my eyes with a quick denial, but I closed them again without
speaking. After all, why not please her? Could I suffer more at this
wedding than in thinking over it in my dungeon of a room at home? She
would be there, of course, but I need not look at her; and if he or she
meditated any treachery, where ought I to be but in the one place where
my presence would be most useful? I decided to gratify Miss Dudleigh,
almost before the inquiry in her eyes had changed to a look of suspense.
'Yes, I will come,' said I.

"She drew a deep breath, and smiled with tender sweetness.

"'I thank you,' she rejoined. 'I thank you most deeply and most truly. I
do not know why I desired it so much. Possibly because I feel something
like a sister to you, possibly because I feel afraid--'

"She stopped, blushing. 'I do not mean afraid. Why should I feel afraid?
Edwin is very good to me; very good. I did not know he could be so
attentive.' And she sighed.

"I felt that sigh go through and through me. Looking at her I took a
sudden resolution.

"'Honora,' I said (I had never called her by her first name