better, a timid, angelic, gentle little being who would have
appealed to him more. When we quarrelled he grew like all you English,
haughty and sneering--ah! when I think of it! And I changed to a
fury--the Clairville temper--and gave back even more, even worse, than
I got. But do not let us talk any more about it! You have discovered
what I would have hidden, and for my part I get on better when I make
myself forget it and him altogether."

He was silent; new and conflicting ideas clashed in his brain, while
very close to him in the warm, fragrant night sat this alluring, sorely
tried and lonely creature, who soon found the silence insupportable.
To keep talking was safe; to be long silent impossible, since they
seemed to draw nearer and nearer with every moment, and soon it would
either be Ringfield's hand upon that dark lock he perceived adorning
her white neck, or her head with its crown of hair stealing tenderly
towards his shoulder. From such a precipitation of events they were
saved by timely recollection of their position and the sounds which
reached them from the road. The boat was leaving again, and they knew
they had been thus together for an hour. Ringfield rose.

"There is now only the man himself to be seen and made to understand
that such stories about you must cease. I shall speak to him at once,
to-night perhaps, certainly to-morrow."

At this she quailed and could not control herself; she laid her hands
on his arm and all the delicate art of the actress was called upon to
assist her pleading.

"Oh!" she cried, "do you not see that it is better left alone? You
take my word--you take my word of honour with you this night--I was
never married to that man. Let it rest there. Do not speak with him
about me. I could not bear it! I should be so ill, so worried, so
unhappy. We scarcely see each other now; let it all be dropped and
forgotten. He--he--exaggerated, forgets---- Oh! I do not know how to
put it, but you must not speak of it. He did not know what he was
saying, you know that yourself."

"That was what I thought at first, certainly."

They remained standing; eye on eye and her firm hands still clasping
his arm. "You will promise me?"

He reflected a moment and then gave her his promise.

"On this condition, that if he speaks of it again, to my knowledge, to
anyone, anywhere, I must then confront him and prove it a lie on your
own showing."

Miss Clairville, only too glad