words that need an
explanation."

"Oh," she broke forth, "and you shall have it; though I think to any
other it must be writ large upon my countenance." She rose and paced the
floor impetuously. "Is it possible," she began again, "you do not yet
perceive the sense of that execrable scene? Or do you think, by feigning
ignorance, to prolong my humiliation? Oh," she said, pausing before him,
her breast in a tumult, her eyes alight, "it was I who persuaded my
father of your discretion and prudence, it was through my influence that
he opened himself to you so freely; and is this the return you make?
Alas, why did you leave your fashionable friends and a world in which
you are so fitted to shine, to bring unhappiness on an obscure household
that never dreamed of courting your notice?"

As she stood before him in her radiant anger, it went hard with Odo not
to silence with a kiss a resentment that he guessed to be mainly
directed against herself; but he controlled himself and said quietly:
"Madam, I were a dolt not to perceive that I have had the misfortune to
offend; but when or how, I swear to heaven I know not; and till you
enlighten me I can neither excuse nor defend myself."

She turned pale, but instantly recovered her composure. "You are right,"
she said; "I rave like a foolish girl; but indeed I scarce know if I am
in my waking senses"--She paused, as if to check a fresh rush of
emotion. "Oh, sir," she cried, "can you not guess what has happened? You
were warned, I believe, not to frequent this house too openly; but of
late you have been an almost daily visitor, and you never come here but
you are followed. My father's doctrines have long been under suspicion,
and to be accused of perverting a man of your rank must be his ruin. He
was too proud to tell you this, and profiting today by his absence, and
knowing that if you came the spies would be at your heels, I resolved to
meet you at the gate, and welcome you in such a way that our enemies
should be deceived as to the true cause of your visits."

Her voice wavered on the last words, but she faced him proudly, and it
was Odo whose gaze fell. Never perhaps had he been conscious of cutting
a meaner figure; yet shame was so blent in him with admiration for the
girl's nobility and courage, that compunction was swept away in the
impulse that flung him at her feet.

"Ah," he cried, "I have been blind indeed, and what you say abases me to
earth. Yes, I was warned that my