I can't put a sword through my own father; it is the most
horrible of crimes. When I confessed----"

"Then," she broke in, "if this farce, this infamy must be gone through,
swear at least that you will treat it as such, that you will respect
me."

"It is a hard thing to ask of a husband who loves you more than any
woman in the world," he answered turning aside his head.

"Remember," she went on, with another flash of defiant spirit, "that
if you do not, you will soon love me better than any woman out of the
world, or perhaps we shall both settle what lies between us before the
Judgment Seat of God. Will you swear?"

He hesitated.

Oh! she reflected, what if he should answer--"Rather than this I hand
you over to Ramiro"? What if he should think of that argument? Happily
for her, at the moment he did not.

"Swear," she implored, "swear," clinging with her hands to the lappet of
his coat and lifting to him her white and piteous face.

"I make it an offering in expiation of my sins," he groaned, "you shall
go free of me."

Elsa uttered a sigh of relief. She put no faith whatever in Adrian's
promises, but at the worst it would give her time.

"I thought that I should not appeal in vain----"

"To so amusing and egregious a donkey," said Ramiro's mocking voice
speaking from the gloom of the doorway, which now Elsa observed for the
first time had swung open mysteriously.

"My dear son and daughter-in-law, how can I thank you sufficiently for
the entertainment with which you have enlivened one of the most dreary
afternoons I remember. Don't look dangerous, my boy; recall what you
have just told this young lady, that the crime of removing a parent is
one which, though agreeable, is not lightly to be indulged. Then, as to
your future arrangements, how touching! The soul of a Diana, I declare,
and the self-sacrifice of a--no, I fear that the heroes of antiquity
can furnish no suitable example. And now, adieu, I go to welcome the
gentleman you both of you so eagerly expect."

He went, and a minute later without speaking, for the situation seemed
beyond words, Adrian crept down the stairs after him, more miserable and
crushed even than he had crept up them half an hour before.

Another two hours went by. Elsa was in her apartment with Black Meg for
company, who watched her as a cat watches a mouse in a trap. Adrian had
taken refuge in the place where he slept above. It was a dreary, vacuous
chamber, that once had