me than you can think, or I can
tell."

She had not the faintest notion of how hard this trial was. I had
sacrificed every plan and purpose of my life in the hope of winning her.
I had cast away, almost as a worthless thing, the substantial prosperity
which had been within my grasp, and now that I stretched out my hand for
the prize, I found it nothing but an empty shadow. Deeper even than this
lay the thought of my mother's bitter disappointment.

"Your husband must have treated you very badly, before you would take
such a desperate step as this," I said again, after a long silence,
scarcely knowing what I said.

"He treated me so ill," said Olivia, with the same hard tone in her
voice, "that when I had a chance of escape it seemed as if God Himself
opened the door for me. He treated me so ill that, if I thought there
was any fear of him finding me out here, I would rather a thousand times
you had left me to die in the caves."

That brought to my mind what I had almost forgotten--the woman whom my
imprudent curiosity had brought into pursuit; of her. I felt ready to
curse my folly aloud, as I did in my heart, for having gone to Messrs.
Scott and Brown.

"Olivia," I said, "there is a woman in Guernsey who has some clew to
you--"

But I could say no more, for I thought she would have fallen to the
ground in her terror. I drew her hand through my arm, and hastened to
reassure her.

"No harm can come to you," I continued, "while Tardif and I are here to
protect you. Do not frighten yourself; we will defend you from every
danger."

"Martin," she whispered--and the pleasant familiarity of my name spoken
by her gave me a sharp pang, almost of gladness--"no one can help me or
defend me. The law would compel me to go back to him. A woman's heart
may be broken without the law being broken. I could prove nothing that
would give me a right to be free--nothing. So I took it into my own
hands. I tell you I would rather have been drowned this afternoon. Why
did you save me?"

I did not answer, except by pressing her hand against my side. I hurried
her on silently toward the cottage. She was shivering in her cold, wet
dress, and trembling with fear. It was plain to me that even her fine
health should not be trifled with, and I loved her too tenderly, her
poor, shivering, trembling frame, to let her suffer if I could help it.
When we reached the fold-yard gate, I stopped her for a moment to speak
only a few words.

"Go