Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/256

Rh to you; but you speak to me strangely, you drive me beside myself;—doubt has not touched me agaínst you; I would not soil you with so much as suspicion. Oh! my loved one, your honour was safe with me;—do not think that one shaft of his told; that one moment of belief gave him triumph. He spoke infamy against you, it is true, and I swore to him to bring that infamy to your hearing, but never because it glanced by me as truth, never save only for this—to prove him and brand him in falsehood. You know me; as I love, so I trust, so I honour."

She stayed him with a gesture; she could bear no more. The swift, eloquent, generous words seemed thrust like daggers through her heart. The fearless light of faith upon his face made her blind as with the lustre of the noonday sun. This was the man she must forsake for ever whilst their lives should last—this was the love that she must change into eternal scorn of her as of a wanton, murderous, living lie! Her martyrdom grew greater than her strength.

"Who was this speaker?"

" Victor Vane; your guest, your friend."

"And he said?" At the name her old superb irony flashed over her