"No. The error is mine, and I must bear the punishment. Ah!" she
cried, suddenly starting up, placing both palms to her brow, and pacing
up and down the little room. "Ah! you don't know what I suffer. Day
and night I sit here and think and think, and wonder, and fear. Yes!"
she cried, her eyes starting as she glared at me in her desperation. "I
fear! I fear lest I may be discovered by those enemies who have sworn
to effect my ruin! But--but you will save me, Wilfrid," she gasped,
suddenly advancing, turning her white face to mine, and clutching my
hand. "You will protect me from them, won't you?"
"Of course," I answered, greatly surprised at her sudden terror, when
only a few moments before she had been so calm in the enjoyment of her
cigarette.
"But who are these enemies of whom you are in such fear? Tell me, and I
may then act accordingly. Surely it is only just that I should be aware
of their identity?" I urged.
"No. I--I--I mean I can't explain. If I did, I should lose even you,
Wilfrid--the only true friend I have in the whole world."
Her hand holding mine trembled as I looked straight into her white,
frightened countenance.
A silence fell between us. I gazed into those wonderful eyes of hers
and noted her marvellous beauty now accentuated by her distress.
"Tibbie." I exclaimed at last in a low, soft voice, scarcely above a
whisper, "you are in deadly fear of the man with whom only the other day
you contemplated marriage--Ellice Winsloe--the man who now intends to
denounce you!"
"Who told you so?" she gasped, drawing back in an instant, and turning
paler. "Who--who has betrayed my secret?"