d me. I did not shrink from
it.

Then I stood away a little and gazed at him. Even at that crucial moment
of doubt and fear, I could not help noticing how admirably he made up
as a handsome young Rajput. Three years earlier, at Schlangenbad, I
remembered he had struck me as strangely Oriental-looking: he had the
features of a high-born Indian gentleman, without the complexion. His
large, poetical eyes, his regular, oval face, his even teeth, his mouth
and moustache, all vaguely recalled the highest type of the Eastern
temperament. Now, he had blackened his face and hands with some
permanent stain--Indian ink, I learned later--and the resemblance to a
Rajput chief was positively startling. In his gold brocade and ample
white turban, no passer-by, I felt sure, would ever have dreamt of
doubting him.

'Then you knew me at once?' he said, holding my face between his hands.
'That's bad, darling! I flattered myself I had transformed my face into
the complete Indian.'

'Love has sharp eyes,' I answered. 'It can see through brick walls. But
the disguise is perfect. No one else would detect you.'

'Love is blind, I thought.'

'Not where it ought to see. There, it pierces everything. I knew you
instantly, Harold. But all London, I am sure, would pass you by,
unknown. You are absolute Orient.'

'That's well; for all London is looking for me,' he answered, bitterly.
'The streets bristle with detectives. Southminster's knaveries have won
the day. So I have tried this disguise. Otherwise, I should have been
arrested the moment the jury brought in their verdict.'

'And why were you not?' I asked, drawing back. 'Oh, Harold, I trust
you; but why did you disappear and make all the world believe you
admitted yourself guilty?'

He opened his arms. 'Can't you guess?' he cried, holding them out to
me.

I nestled in them once more; but I answered through my tears--I had
found tears now--'No Harold; it baffles me.'

'You remember what you promised me?' he murmured, leaning over me and
clasping me. 'If ever I were poor, friendless, hunted--you would marry
me. Now the opportunity has come when we can both prove ourselves.
To-day, except you and dear Georgey, I haven't a friend in the world.
Everyone else has turned against me. Southminster holds the field. I am
a suspected forger; in a very few days I shall doubtless be a convicted
felon. Unjustly, as you know; yet still--we must face it--a convicted
felon. So I have come to claim