lible perjury; the lonely
drive with the man who compelled her to it; the exhibition of herself
before all the world as his willing companion; and the feast in which he
appeared as her cavalier, and was accepted of the simple company almost
as an angel entertained by chance.

What did he mean? Doubtless, for on that point she could scarcely be
mistaken, he meant to make love to her, for had he not in practice said
as much? And now--this was the terrible thing--she was in his power,
since if he chose to do so, without doubt he could prove that she had
sworn a false oath for her own purposes. Also that lie weighed upon her
mind, although it had been spoken in a good cause; if it was good to
save a wretched fanatic from the fate which, were the truth known,
without doubt her crime deserved.

Of course, the Spaniard was a bad man, if an attractive one, and he had
behaved wickedly, if with grace and breeding; but who expected anything
else from a Spaniard, who only acted after his kind and for his own
ends? It was Dirk--Dirk--that was to blame, not so much--and here again
came the rub--for his awkwardness and mistakes of yesterday, as for his
general conduct. Why had he not spoken to her before, and put her beyond
the reach of such accidents as these to which a woman of her position
and substance must necessarily be exposed? The saints knew that she had
given him opportunity enough. She had gone as far as a maiden might, and
not for all the Dirks on earth would she go one inch further. Why
had she ever come to care for his foolish face? Why had she refused
So-and-so, and So-and-so and So-and-so--all of them honourable men--with
the result that now no other bachelor ever came near her, comprehending
that she was under bond to her cousin? In the past she had persuaded
herself that it was because of something she felt but could not see, of
a hidden nobility of character which after all was not very evident
upon the surface, that she loved Dirk van Goorl. But where was this
something, this nobility? Surely a man who was a man ought to play his
part, and not leave her in this false position, especially as
there could be no question of means. She would not have come to him
empty-handed, very far from it, indeed. Oh! were it not for the unlucky
fact that she still happened to care about him--to her sorrow--never,
never would she speak to him again.

The last of our three friends to awake on this particular morning,
between nine