Part 43 (1/2)

”I must not forget that--I am--” She paused.

”Promised to another man? But you will never carry out that promise, Joan--you cannot, my dear! You cannot, because you belong to me. But it was not of that that you came to speak. Only remember what I have said.

It is true.”

”It cannot be true. I never break a promise! What am I to do? Tell me and advise me. You know--what he--he says--what he thinks or--or pretends to think.” Again the burning flush was in her cheeks.

”I know!”

”And even though it is all a vile and cruel lie, yet I could not bear--”

”You shall not suffer!”

”Don't--don't you understand that if people should think--think of such a thing and me--that they should speak of it and utter my name--Lies or truth, it would be almost the same; the shame of it would be horrible--horrible!” She was trembling.

”Tell me, have you seen this man?”

”Yes, last Sat.u.r.day. He wrote ordering me to meet him. In every line of the letter I read threats. I--I had to go; it was money, of course, five thousand pounds.”

”And you didn't promise?” His voice was harsh and sharp, and looking at him she saw a man changed, a man whose face was hard and stern, and whose mouth had grown bitter. And, knowing it was for her, she knew that she had never admired him before as she did now.

”I promised nothing. I am to meet him again to-morrow night and--and tell him what I have decided. It is not the money, but--but to pay would seem as if I--I were afraid. And oh, I have paid before!”

”I know! And to-morrow you will meet him?”

”I--but--”

”You will meet him, Joan, but I shall be there also. Tell me where!”

She described the place, and he remembered it and knew it well enough.

”I shall be there, remember that. Go without fear--answer as you decide, but remember you pay nothing--nothing. And then I,”--he paused, and smiled for the first time--”I will do the paying.”

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

THE DROPPING OF THE SCALES

It was like turning back the pages of a well-loved book, a breath out of the past. For this afternoon it seemed to John Everard that his little friend, almost sister, had come back to him.

And yet it seemed to Johnny, who studied her quietly, that here was one whom he had never known, never seen before. The child had been dear to him as a younger sister, but the child was no more.

And to-day, for these few brief hours, Ellice gave herself up to a happiness that she knew could be but fleeting. To-day she would be the b.u.t.terfly, living and rejoicing in the sun. The darkness would come soon enough, but to-day was hers and his.

How far in his boldness John Everard drove that little car he did not quite realise, but it was a slight shock to him to read on a sign-post ”Holsworth four miles,” for Holsworth was more than forty miles from Little Langbourne.

”Gipsy, we must go back,” he said. ”We'll get some tea at the farmhouse we pa.s.sed a mile back, and then we will hurry on. Con will be worrying.”