that was the hard thing, the difficult dreadful thing which hung weights to my feet, and made me well nigh mad.  And it was this which at the sight of a policeman in the street led me to make an effort to escape.  But it was not successful.  Though I was fortunate enough to free myself from the grasp of my father and brother, I reached the gate on ----- street only to encounter the eyes of him whose displeasure I most feared, looking sternly upon me from the other side.  The shock was too much for me in my then weak and unnerved condition.  Without considering anything but the fact that he never had known and never must, that I had been in the same house with him for so long, I rushed back to the corner and into the arms of the men who awaited me.  How you came to be there, Mr. Blake, or why you did not open the gate and follow, I cannot say.”

“The gate was locked,” returned that gentleman.  “You remember it closes with a spring, and can only be opened by means of a key which I did not have.”

“My father had it,” she murmured; “he spent a whole week in the endeavor to get hold of it, and finally succeeded on the evening of the very day he used it.  It was left in the lock I believe.”

“So much for servants,” I whispered to myself.

“The next morning,” continued she, “they put the case very plainly before me.  I was at liberty to return at once to my home if I would promise to work in their interest by making certain demands upon you as your wife.  All they wanted, said they, was a snug little sum and a lift out of the country.  If I would secure them these, they would trouble me no more.  But I could not concede to anything of that nature, of course, and the consequence was these long weeks of imprisonment and suspense; weeks that I do not now begrudge, seeing they have brought me the assurance of your esteem and the knowledge, that wherever I go, your thoughts will follow me with compassion if not with love.”

And having told her story and thus answered his demands, she assumed once more the position of lofty reserve that seemed to shut him back from advance like a wall of invincible crystal.

CHAPTER XX

THE BOND THAT UNITES

But he was not to be discouraged.  “And after all this, after all you have suffered for my sake and your own, do you think you have a right to deny me the one desire of my heart?  How can you reconcile it with your ideas of devotion, Luttra?”

“My ideas of devotion look beyond the present, Mr. Blake.  It is to save you from years of wearing anxiety that I consent to the infliction upon you of a passing pang.”

He took a bold step forward.  “Luttra, you do not know a man’s heart.  To lose you now would not merely inflict a passing pang, but sow the seeds of a grief that would go with me to the grave.”

“Do you then”—­she began, but paused blushing.  Mrs. Daniels took the opportunity to approach her on the other side.