’Chatty says my cousin is in the dining-room:  do you mind coming down with me for a few minutes?  I do not wish to see her alone.’

Of course I signified my willingness to accompany him, and he walked beside me silently to the dining-room door.

Miss Darrell was sitting on the circular seat looking out on the oak avenue; she did not turn her head, and there was something hopeless in the line of her stooping shoulders.  I saw her hands clutch the cushions nervously as her cousin walked straight to the window.

‘Etta,’ he began abruptly, ’I wish you to listen to me a moment.  I will spare you all I can, for Aunt Margaret’s sake:  I do not intend to be more hard with you than my duty demands.’

‘Oh, Giles!’ raising her eyes at this mild commencement; but they dropped again at the sight of the dark impenetrable face, which certainly had no look of pity on it.  She must have felt then, what I should certainly have felt in her place, that any prayers or tears would be wasted on him.

‘It would be useless, and worse than useless,’ he went on, ’to point out to you the heinousness of your sin,—­perhaps I should say crime.  All these years you have not faltered in your relentless course; no pity for me and mine has touched your heart; you have allowed our poor lad to wander about the world as an outcast; you have suffered Gladys to carry a heavy and bitter weight in her bosom.  Pshaw! why do I reiterate these things? you know them all.’

‘Giles, I have loved you in spite of it all!  Be merciful to me!’ But he went on as though he heard her no more than the rain dripping on the leaves.

’This home is yours no longer; you are no fit companion for my sisters, even if I could bear to shelter a traitor under my roof.  If I know my present feelings, I will never willingly see your face again:  whether I ever do see it depends on your future conduct.’

‘Oh, for pity’s sake, Giles!’ She was writhing now.  In spite of all her sins against him, she had loved him in her perverse way.

‘I have found you a home far from here,’ he continued in the same chilling manner, ’and to-morrow morning you will be taken to it.  The Alnwicks are kind, worthy people—­not rich in this world’s goods, or what the world would call refined.  I was able to help them once when they were in bitter straits:  in return they have acceded to my request and have offered you a home.’

‘I will not go!’ she sobbed passionately.  ’I would rather you should kill me, Giles, than treat me with such cruelty!’

‘They are old,’ he went on calmly, ’but more with trouble than years, and they have no one belonging to them, and they promise to treat you like a daughter.  You will be in comfort, but not luxury:  luxury has been your curse, Etta.  A moderate sum will be paid to you yearly for your dress and personal expenses, but if overdrawn or misapplied it will be curtailed or stopped altogether.  Your maintenance will be arranged between the Alnwicks and myself, and, unless I give you permission to write,—­which is distinctly not my purpose now,—­no letter from you will be read or answered, and I forbid all such communication.’