She gazed at him in troubled amaze; there was that in the passionate
agitation of this man who had been serene through so much danger, and
unmoved beneath so much disaster, that startled and bewildered her.

"You fled from Philip? Ah! how you must wrong him! What will it matter
to him whether you be prince or trooper, wear a peer's robes or a
soldier's uniform? His friendship never yet was given to externals.
But--why?--that reminds me of your inheritance. Do you know that lord
Royallieu is dead? That your younger brother bears the title, thinking
you perished at Marseilles? He was here with me yesterday; he has come
to Algeria for the autumn. Whatever your motive may have been to remain
thus hidden from us all, you must claim your own rights now. You must
go back to all that is so justly yours. Whatever your reason be to
have borne with all the suffering and the indignity that have been your
portion here, they will be ended now."

Her beauty had never struck him as intensely as at this moment, when, in
urging him to the demand of his rights, she so unconsciously tempted him
to betray his brother and to forsake his word. The indifference and
the careless coldness that had to so many seemed impenetrable and
unalterable in her were broken and had changed to the warmth of
sympathy, of interest, of excitation. There was a world of feeling in
her face, of eloquence in her eyes, as she stooped slightly forward
with the rich glow of the cashmeres about her, and the sun-gleam falling
across her brow. Pure, and proud, and noble in every thought, and
pressing on him now what was the due of his birth and his heritage, she
yet unwittingly tempted him with as deadly a power as though she were
the vilest of her sex, seducing him downward to some infamous dishonor.

To do what she said would be but his actual right, and would open to him
a future so fair that his heart grew sick with longing for it; and yet
to yield, and to claim justice for himself, was forbidden him as
utterly as though it were some murderous guilt. He had promised never to
sacrifice his brother; the promise held him like the fetters of a galley
slave.

"Why do you not answer me?" she pursued, while she leaned nearer with
wonder, and doubt, and a certain awakening dread shadowing the blue
luster of her eyes that were bent so thoughtfully, so searchingly, upon
him. "Is it possible that you have heard of your inheritance, of your
title and estates, and that you