He held her hands in a close, warm clasp, and a flush crossed his brow, as he looked down into her quivering face where a smile which he could not interpret, seemed only a challenge.

“Would a generous man, worthy of Miss Gordon, harass and persecute a very unhappy and unfortunate woman, who asks at his hands only to be forgotten completely, to be left in peace?”

“I lay no claim to generosity, and, where you are concerned, I am supremely selfish.  Miss Gordon has no need of your championship; she is quite equal to redressing her own wrongs, when the necessity presents itself.  You are struggling to free your hands, so be it.  I have a close carriage at the gate, and to make assurance doubly sure, I have come to take you to ‘Elm Bluff’; to show you the face, and ask you to identify it.  Understand me, I will harass you with no questions; nor will I intrude upon you there.  I have ordered the grounds cleared, have posted police to prevent the possibility of any occurrence unpleasant to you; and all I ask is, that alone, you will examine this witness, produced so strangely for your justification.  I shall wait for you in the rose garden, and if you can come down from that gallery and tell me that the face is unknown to you, that the man photographed in the act of stealing, is a stranger, is not the man you love so well that you bore worse than death to save him from punishment, then I will give up the quest; and you may flee unwatched to the ends of the earth.”

“Never again will I see that place which has blasted every hope that life held for me.”

“Not even to clear away aspersion from his beloved name?”

“I pray God, his beloved and sacred name may never be associated with a crime so awful.”

“You will not go to see the face?  Remember, I shall ask you neither yea nor nay.  I shall need only to look once into your eyes, after you have seen the Gorgon.  Beryl, my white rose!  Are you ashamed to show me your idol’s face?”

“I will never go to ’Elm Bluff’.”

“It is no longer necessary.  You know already the features printed there, and your avoidance stamps them with infamy.  How can your lofty soul, your pure heart, tolerate a creature so craven, so vile?”

“We love not always whom we would, or should, were choice permitted us; and to whom I have given my heart, my whole deep heart, you shall never learn.”

The mournful smile that lent such wistful loveliness to her flushed face, seemed to him merely a renewed defiance.

“I bide my time, knowing it will surely come.  You are free, but be careful.  Once when you lay upon the brink of the grave, unconscious, I knelt at your side and took you in my arms; laid your head on my heart, felt your cheek touch mine.  Then and there I made a covenant with my soul; and no other man’s arms shall ever enfold you.  Ah, my Rosa Alba!  I could dig your grave with my own hands, sooner than see that thief claim you.  I am a proud man, and you have dragged me through the slough of humiliation, but to-day, as I bid you good-bye, I realize how one felt, who looking at the bust of him she loved supremely, said with her last breath:  ’Voila mon univers, mon espoir, et mes dieux!’ How soon we meet again depends solely on your future course.  You know the conditions; and I promise you I will not swerve one iota.”