Swiftly, unerringly she comprehended everything; and the suddenness of the discovery dazzled, awed her, as one might feel under the blue flash of a dagger when thrust into one’s clasp for novice fingers to feel the edge.  Was the weapon valued merely because of the possibility of fleshing it in the heart of him who had darkened her life?  Did he understand as fully the marvellous change in the beautiful face, that had lured him from his chapel tryst with his betrothed?  He was on the alert for signals of distress, of embarrassment, of terror; but what meant the glad light that leaped up in her eyes, the quick flush staining her wan cheek, the triumphant smile curving lips that a moment before might have belonged to Guercino’s Mater Dolorosa, the relaxation of figure and features, the unmistakable expression of intense relief that stole into the countenance?

“Will you be so good as to tell me my lover’s name, and where the fox terriers of the law unearthed him?”

“I will tell you something which you do not already know; that I have found a clue, that I shall hunt him out, hide, crouch where he may; that here, where he sinned, he shall expiate his crime, and that when your lover is hung, your name, your honor, shall be vindicated.  So much, Lennox Dunbar promises you, on his honor as a gentleman.”

“Words, vapid words!  Empty, worthless as last year’s nests.  My lover,” she laughed scornfully, “is quite safe even from your malevolence.  If indeed ’one touch of nature makes the whole world kin,’ one might expect some pity from the guild of love swains; and it augurs sadly for Miss Gordon’s future, that the spell is so utterly broken.”

His dark face reddened, lowered.

“If you please, we will keep Miss Gordon’s name out of the conversation, and hereafter when—­”

“Enough!  I shall keep her image in my grateful heart, the few tedious months I have to live; and there seems indeed a sort of poetic justice in the fact that the bride you covet, has become the truest, tenderest friend of the hapless girl whom you are prosecuting for murder.”

“Beryl—­”

“I forbid such insolent presumption!  You shall not utter the name my father gave me.  It is holy as my baptism; it must be kept unsullied for my lover’s lips to fondle.  This is your last visit here, for if you dare to intrude again, I will demand protection from the warden.  I will bear no more.”

As he looked at her, the witchery of her youthful loveliness, heightened by the angry sparkle in her deep eyes, by the vivid carnation of her curling lips, mastered him; and when he thought of the brown-haired woman to whom he was pledged, he set his teeth tight, to smother an execration.  He moved toward the door, paused, and came back.

“Will it comfort you to know that I suffer even more than you do; that I am plunged into a fiercer purgatory than that to which I have condemned you?  I am devoured by regret; but I will atone.  I came here as your friend; I can never be less, and in defiance of your hatred, I shall prove my sincerity.  Because I bemoan my rash haste, will you say good-bye kindly?  Some day, perhaps, you will understand.”