“Mr. Delaney, I cannot understand you,” she said. “You talk strangely.
I am tempted to believe that you cannot be sane, that you are not in
your right mind.”
He looked at her steadily with his grave, dark eyes.
“Do I look like a lunatic, Miss Rodney?” he inquired.
“No, but you talk like one,” she cried out, petulantly. “Do you really
imagine that you can keep my presence here a secret from my own people?
Do you not know that they will search for me until they find me?”
“They are already searching for you, but I am quite sure they will
never find you,” he replied. “The last place where Mr. Rodney would
think of looking for you would be here in his neighbor’s house.”
She knew that it was true. Her heart sunk heavily, but she cried out,
spiritedly:
“But when I go home and tell him--what then? Are you not afraid of his
anger when he knows the truth?”
“He will never know,” Oran Delaney replied, strangely.
The pale face on the snowy, lace-fringed pillow grew paler still, the
blue eyes darkened with agitation.
“Not know?” she cried out, passionately. “Why, what can you mean?”
“You will not tell him,” he replied.
“Now I am quite, quite sure that you are mad,” said Aline. “Do you
think I shall not tell them all when I go home?”
“I am quite sure you will not!”
Aline could not speak for a moment. She was mystified by Mr. Delaney’s
words and manner. She almost began to believe him mad indeed. To what
did his strange talk tend?
While she puzzled within herself he drew his chair nearer to the
bedside--near enough indeed to touch her pulse with his cool fingers.
“Pray do not excite yourself unduly,” he said. “There is really
no necessity for it. Cannot we discuss this matter coolly and
dispassionately, and come to an understanding?”
She drew her hand away with a heavy sigh.
“I do not believe I can discuss it coolly,” she said. “I am frightened
at the mysteries of this house, and the mysteries with which you choose
to surround me. I am here within a stone’s throw of my own home,
wounded, helpless, a prey to grief and anxiety, while my friends are
seeking me everywhere in sorrow and distress. I cannot be calm and
cool. I am perfectly wretched. How can you explain away these things?”
“Will you listen to me while I try to do so?” asked Oran Delaney.
“Yes,” she answered, impatiently.
“It will not take long,” he said. “In the first place, Miss Rodney, I
take some blame upon myself for this. I should not have brought you
into my house--I should not even have admitted you into my garden. But
I thought you a lonely child, and was carelessly willing to gratify
your penchant for my beautiful flowers.”
“Those dearly bought flowers!” sighed Aline.
“Through your own thoughtlessness and mine,” he continued, “you have
stumbled upon the mystery of Delaney House--a mystery too terrible to
be given to the world--a secret I will guard with my very life, if need
be. Therefore--” He paused, after his odd fashion, and gazed gravely
into her face.
“Therefore,” she repeated, wonderingly.
“The Delaneys have been a proud race from the beginning--I am the
proudest one yet,” he said. “That which you know of Delaney House, Miss
Rodney, you shall never be permitted to carry across its portals to
blazon to a curious, mocking world!”
“Do you mean to kill me?” shuddered the girl, shrinking in terror from
the dark, stern, agitated face.
He started and looked at her.
“Poor child! Have I indeed frightened you so much?” he asked. “I must
indeed be an ogre in your eyes! No, Aline--you are such a child, let
me call you so--no; I do not mean to kill you. I am not a murderer. I
shall simply bind you by an oath of silence when you leave this place.”
“An oath of silence?” she repeated, vaguely.
“Yes,” he answered, steadily. “I shall swear you to silence regarding
your whereabouts during the time you have been away--silence regarding
the wound you have received--silence regarding me--silence, in short,
as to everything that can throw the least light on your strange
disappearance from your home.”
“And if I refuse to swear?” Aline exclaimed, gazing at him almost
defiantly.
“If you refuse, you will never be permitted to leave Delaney House,” he
answered, firmly.
“Never?” she echoed.
“Never!” he reiterated.