The blood ebbed from his face; the haughty mouth twitched in a sudden spasm, and he put his hand over his eyes.

Could she adopt this ruse to thwart pursuit of the man whom she idolized?  For half a moment he stood, with whitened lips; then stooped, took the face of the kneeling woman in his palms, and scanned it.

“Your brother?”

“My brother.  Do you understand at last, why I must save him?  Why you must help me to screen him from ruin?”

“Great God!  After all, what a blind fool I have been!”

He raised her, placed her on the bench; sat down and leaned his head on his hand.  To Beryl, the silence that followed was an excruciating torture, beyond even her power of endurance.

“Do not keep me in suspense.  Where is Bertie?  Let me see him, if he is here.”

“He is not here.  It was to assist you in finding him, that I enticed you here.”

“You enticed me?”

“I put the advertisement in the ‘Herald’, knowing that if you chanced to see it, all the legions of Satan could not keep you away.  I have been here since Sunday, waiting and watching.  I was obliged to see you, for your own sake, as well as to satisfy my longing to look once more into your face; and I felt assured the magnetic name of ‘Bertie’ would draw you here swiftly.”

“Then it was only a snare, that advertisement?  Oh! you are cruel!”

“Not to you.  It was to promote your peace of mind, by enabling you to meet the man who, I supposed was your lover, that I invited you to this place.  Mark you, only to see, never to marry him.”

“Where is he?”

“Exactly where, I do not yet know; but very soon you shall learn.”

“Is he in peril?”

“Not from arrest at present, by human officers of retributive justice.”

“He is not coming here?”

“Certainly not.”

“How did you learn his name?”

“I suspected that the advertisement you published in the “Herald” after leaving X—–­, was a clue that would aid me.  I clung to it, for I was sure it referred to the man whom I have hunted so persistently.”

“You have something to tell me.  Be merciful, and end my suspense.”

“First, answer one question.  Why did you conceal from me the fact that you had a brother?  Why did you allow me to suffer from a false theory, that you knew made my life a slow torture?”

He leaned nearer, and under the blue fire of his eager eyes, the blood mounted into her pale cheeks.

“My motive belongs to a past, with which I trust I have done forever; and you have no right to violate its buried ashes.”

“I must, and I will have all the truth, cost what it may.  Between you and me, no spectre of mystery shall longer stalk.  If you had trusted me, and confessed the facts before the trial, you would have muzzled me effectually, and prevented the employment of detectives whom I have hissed on your brother’s track.  Why did you lead me astray, and confirm my suspicion that you were shielding a lover?”