e, and they stood in silence
looking upon the Seine, now dark beneath the clouding night.
"I can't feel sure of you," fell at length from Hilliard.
"I promise----"
"Yes; here, now, in Paris. But when you are back in that hell----"
"What difference can it make in me? It can't change what I feel now.
You have altered all my life, my thoughts about everything. When I look
back, I don't know myself. You were right; I must have been suffering
from an illness that affected my mind. It seems impossible that I could
ever have done such things. I ought to tell you. Do you wish me to tell
you everything?"
Hilliard spoke no answer, but he pressed her hand more tightly in his
own.
"You knew it from Patty, didn't you?"
"She told me as much as she knew that night when I waited for you in
High Street. She said you were in danger, and I compelled her to tell
all she could."
"I _was_ in danger, though I can't understand now how it went so far as
that. It was he who came to me with the money, from the gentleman at
Hampstead. That was how I first met him. The next day he waited for me
when I came away from business."
"It was the first time that anything of that kind had happened?"
"The first time. And you know what the state of my mind was then. But
to the end I never felt any--I never really loved him. We met and went
to places together. After my loneliness--you can understand. But I
distrusted him. Did Patty tell you why I left London so suddenly?"
"Yes."
"When that happened I knew my instinct had been right from the first.
It gave me very little pain, but I was ashamed and disgusted. He hadn't
tried to deceive me in words; he never spoke of marriage; and from what
I found out then, I saw that he was very much to be pitied."
"You seem to contradict yourself," said Hilliard. "Why were you ashamed
and disgusted?"
"At finding myself in the power of such a woman. He married her when
she was very young, and I could imagine the life he had led with her
until he freed himself. A hateful woman!"
"Hateful to you, I see," muttered the listener, with something tight at
his heart.
"Not because I felt anything like jealousy. You must believe me. I
should never have spoken if I hadn't meant to tell you the simple
truth."
Again he pressed her hand. The warmth of her body had raised his blood
to fever-heat.
"When we met again, after I came back, it was by chance. I refused to
speak to him, but he followed me a
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