Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/228

 "From the moment you crossed this old hall the night I met you."

"Loved me when you refused to answer my appeal in person the day I wrote you?"

"I refused because I loved you."

She looked at him a moment with a feeling of sudden fear. For the first time she realised with a shock that her imperious will to master his life was not the only force at work. The shadowy figure of Fate stood grim and silent before her.

"The man who wins my heart," she said firmly, "can hold no reservations—he must be all mine, body and soul. He asks as much of me. I demand the same. Are you ready to place your life in my hands as I am asked to place mine in yours?"

"Without reservation," he answered.

"I must be frank with you," she said, turning her eyes appealingly on him. "Since the awful night I saw my father sitting dead in that chair with those masked figures, white, silent and terrible behind me, I have had a morbid curiosity mingled with terror for everything and everyone connected with the Klan. I have heard that you are a member?"

John suddenly knelt before her and took her hand.

"Here on my knees before you and before God—and when I am before you I am in the presence of