Page:Hope-indiscretions of duchess.djvu/127

Rh “Where is she?”

“She is safe from you, I hope.”

“Aye—and you’ll keep her safe!”

“As I say, I know nothing about her, except that she’d be an honest girl if you’d let her alone.”

He was still holding my arm, and I let him hold it: the man was hardly himself under the slavery of his passion. But again, at my words, the wonder which I had seen before stole into his eyes.

“You must know where she is,” he said, with a straining look at my face, “but—but——”

He broke off, leaving his sentence unfinished. Then he broke out again:

“Safe from me? I would make life a heaven for her!”

“That’s the old plea,” said I.

“Is a thing a lie because it’s old? There’s nothing in the world I would not give her—nothing I have not offered her.” Then he looked at me, repeating again: “You must know where she is.” And then he whispered: “Why aren’t you with her?”

“I have no wish to be with her,” said I. Any other reason would not have appealed to him.

He sank down on the stool again and sat in a heap, breathing heavily and quickly. He was wonderfully transfigured, and I hardly knew in him the cold harsh man who had been my temporary master and was the mocking husband of the duchess. Say all that may be said