"'Estelle, I feel that it is more than half my fault--I should never have allowed you to meet him here. I should not have dared if I had foreseen the end. I felt sorry, because you seemed to like each other; but I have done wrong.' "I laid my head on her shoulder. "'What am I to do?' I moaned. "'I see no help for it now, Estelle; however averse you may be, you must tell the duchess.' "Then I clung to her, weeping and saying: "'I dare not--I would rather die.' "'But, my dear Estelle,' she interrupted, 'you must--indeed, you must. I see no help for it.' "I remember standing up with a white, haggard face and beating heart. "'If you will not help me, Agnes, I must tell her, but I shall do it in my own fashion. I shall write a letter to her, and kill myself before she receives it. I will never look my mother in the face again after she knows.' "'Then what is to be done, Estelle?' "'Be my friend, as you have always been. You have had more experience than I have had: you know the world better than I know it. You are older than I am; help me, Agnes.' "'You mean, help you to keep the secret of your marriage?' she asked. "'I do; and in asking you that, I ask for my life itself--the one depends upon the other.' "Lady Agnes sat quite silent for some minutes, then she said: "'I will do it, Estelle. Perhaps, in making this promise, I am wrong, as I am in everything else; but I will help you for the sake of the love that was between us when we were happy young girls.' "I had no words in which to thank her; it really seemed to me as though the burden of my trouble were for the time removed from me to her. "'How will it be?' I asked her. "'Give me time to think, Estelle; I must arrange it all in my own mind first. Do not come near me for three days.' "At the end of that time my mother received a letter from Lady Agnes, urging her to allow me to go with her to Switzerland; she was not strong, and required change of air. My mother had implicit faith and confidence in Lady Delapain. "'You have not been looking well lately, Estelle,' she said to me; 'it will do you good to go.' "Ah, me! what a weight those few words took from my mind. Then Lady Agnes called upon us, and spoke to my mother about our little tour. "'We shall enjoy ourselves after our own fashion,' she said. 'Lord Delapain goes with us as far as Interlachen; there he will leave us for a time. You may safely trust Lady Estelle with me.' "My mother had not the slightest idea that anything was unusual. The only thing that embarrassed me was that she insisted upon my taking my maid Leeson with me. When I told this to Lady Agnes, she was, like myself, dismayed for a few minutes, then she said, calmly; "'It will not matter; we should have been obliged to take some one into our confidence; as well Leeson as another. We must tell her of the marriage.'