I was determined to make him declare himself, for Laura’s sake.

“Sir Percival!” I interposed sharply, “have you nothing to say when my sister has said so much?  More, in my opinion,” I added, my unlucky temper getting the better of me, “than any man alive, in your position, has a right to hear from her.”

That last rash sentence opened a way for him by which to escape me if he chose, and he instantly took advantage of it.

“Pardon me, Miss Halcombe,” he said, still keeping his hand over his face, “pardon me if I remind you that I have claimed no such right.”

The few plain words which would have brought him back to the point from which he had wandered were just on my lips, when Laura checked me by speaking again.

“I hope I have not made my painful acknowledgment in vain,” she continued.  “I hope it has secured me your entire confidence in what I have still to say?”

“Pray be assured of it.”  He made that brief reply warmly, dropping his hand on the table while he spoke, and turning towards us again.  Whatever outward change had passed over him was gone now.  His face was eager and expectant—­it expressed nothing but the most intense anxiety to hear her next words.

“I wish you to understand that I have not spoken from any selfish motive,” she said.  “If you leave me, Sir Percival, after what you have just heard, you do not leave me to marry another man, you only allow me to remain a single woman for the rest of my life.  My fault towards you has begun and ended in my own thoughts.  It can never go any farther.  No word has passed—­” She hesitated, in doubt about the expression she should use next, hesitated in a momentary confusion which it was very sad and very painful to see.  “No word has passed,” she patiently and resolutely resumed, “between myself and the person to whom I am now referring for the first and last time in your presence of my feelings towards him, or of his feelings towards me—­no word ever can pass—­neither he nor I are likely, in this world, to meet again.  I earnestly beg you to spare me from saying any more, and to believe me, on my word, in what I have just told you.  It is the truth.  Sir Percival, the truth which I think my promised husband has a claim to hear, at any sacrifice of my own feelings.  I trust to his generosity to pardon me, and to his honour to keep my secret.”

“Both those trusts are sacred to me,” he said, “and both shall be sacredly kept.”

After answering in those terms he paused, and looked at her as if he was waiting to hear more.

“I have said all I wish to say,” she added quietly—­“I have said more than enough to justify you in withdrawing from your engagement.”

“You have said more than enough,” he answered, “to make it the dearest object of my life to keep the engagement.”  With those words he rose from his chair, and advanced a few steps towards the place where she was sitting.