“I was innocent; but my name, my father’s honored name, was in jeopardy of dishonor, and to protect it, I would not undeceive you.  Had my brother been convicted, the established guilt would have tarnished forever our only legacy, all that father left to Bertie and to me—­his spotless name.”

“You are quibbling.  Did you shield the family name by enduring the purgatory of seeing your own on the list of penitentiary convicts?  You deliberately fastened the odium of the crime upon your father’s daughter; and you knew, you understood perfectly, that by strengthening my erroneous supposition, you were lashing me to a pursuit of the person, whom you could have best protected by frankly telling me all.  If he is really your brother, what did you expect to accomplish by fostering my belief that he was your lover?”

“Mr. Dunbar, spare me this inquisition.  Release me from the rack of suspense.  Tell me why you set this snare, baited with Bertie’s name?”

“I must first end my own suspense.  If you wish to find the man, you tell me is your brother, I will aid you only when you have bared your heart to me.  You had some powerful incentive unrevealed.  I will know exactly, why you made me suffer all these years, the pangs of a devouring jealousy, keener than a vulture’s talons.”

With crimson cheeks, and shy, averted eyes, she sat trembling; unconsciously locking and unlocking her fingers.  Her head drooped, and the voice was a low flutter: 

“If I had told you that the handkerchief was one I gave to my brother, because he fancied the gay border, and that the pipe belonged to my dear father, and if you had known that for more than a year before I went to X—–­no tidings from that brother had reached me, would you have kept my secret, when you saw my life laid in the scales held by the jury?  Suppose they had condemned me to death?  I expected that fate; but knowing the truth, would you have permitted the execution of that sentence?”

“Certainly not; and you understand why I should never have allowed it.”

“I knew that in such an emergency I could not trust you.”

Five minutes passed, while he silently sought to unravel the web; and Beryl dared not meet his gaze.

“You had some stronger motive, else you would have confessed all, when I started to Dakota.  Anxiety for your brother’s safety would have unsealed your lips.  What actuated you then?  I mean to know everything now.”

“Miss Gordon was my friend.  She showed me kindness which I could never forget.”

“Miss Gordon is a very noble woman, kinder to all the world than to herself; but did gratitude to her involve sacrifice of me?”

“You were betrothed.  I owed it to her, to keep you loyal to your vows, as far as my power extended.  I tried faithfully to guard her happiness, while endeavoring to shield my brother.”