What resources of passion the man was exhibiting!  By forethought he could have devised no word of these speeches which he uttered with such vigour; it was not he who spoke, but the very Love God within him.  He asked the last question with a voice subdued in tenderness; his eyes had a softer fire.

Emily gave her answer.

‘I would not marry you, though you stood to kill me if I refused.’

No bravado, no unmeasured vehemence of tone, but spoken as it would have been had the very weapon of death gleamed in his hand.

He knew that this was final.

’So you are willing that your father shall be put into the dock at the police-court to-morrow morning?’

‘If you can do that, it must be so.’

’If I can?  You know very well I have the power to, and you ought to know by now that I stick at nothing.  Go home and think about it.’

It is useless.  I have thought.  If you think still to make me yield by this fear, it is better that you should act at once.  I will tell you If I were free, if I had the power to give myself to you in marriage, it would make your threat of no more avail.  I love my father; to you I cannot say more than that; but though I would give my life to save his from ruin, I could not give—­my father would not wish me, oh never!—­my woman’s honour.  You will find it hard to understand me, for you seem not to know the meaning of such words.’

She closed with stern bitterness, compelled to it by the tone of his last bidding.  A glorious beauty flashed in her face.  Alas, Wilfrid Athel would never know the pride of seeing thus the woman he knew so noble.  But Wilfrid was in her heart; his soul allied itself with hers and gave her double strength.  Dagworthy had wrought for her that which in the night’s conflict she could not bring about by her own force; knowing, in the face of utter despair, the whole depth of the love with which she held to her father, she could yet speak his doom with calmness, with clear intelligence that the sacrifice she was asked to make was disproportionate to the disaster threatened.

He answered with cold decision.

’It’s you who don’t know me.  I’ve nothing more to say to you; you are at liberty to go.  To-morrow your father will be before the magistrates.’

Emily moved to the door.  The sound of the words had blanched her lips.  She felt that, if she would keep hold upon her bodily strength, she must breathe the outer air.

‘Look here, I say,’ he exclaimed, stepping to the table.  ’Take the money.  I’ve nothing to do with that.’

She made a motion with her hand, but hastened still and escaped.  Once in the garden she all but ran, thinking she heard his footsteps in pursuit, and smitten with that sudden terror which comes sometimes when a danger is escaped.  But she had gained the Heath, and it was certain now that he had not tried to overtake her, a glance back showed her that no one was in sight.  She walked rapidly on, though her heart seemed about to burst, walked without pausing till she had reached the quarry.  Here she sat on the same stone as before.  She was in dread of fainting; the anguish of her leaping blood was intolerable; she had neither sight nor hearing.  But the crisis of suffering passed; she let her head fall forward and buried it upon her lap.