“I will not delay you longer this morning,” he said at last, with an artful mock confidence. “I am infinitely grateful to you for so kindly coming to meet me here. And it is only due to you to tell you why I begged you to come here to-day. The nature of my important official duties is such that I am not permitted to exhibit my real character to any one here as yet. I am charged with some very delicate public duties which may force me to linger here for some time, or perhaps disappear without notice, only to return in the same mysterious manner. But in me you have a stanch secret friend always. I have already written to your charming sister, and I expect to receive from her letters which will be followed by letters to you from her. And I shall write to-day and tell her of your goodness to me.” Miss Justine Delande’s eyes were downcast. Her agitated bosom was throbbing with an unaccustomed fire, and the desire to be safely sheltered once more in Hugh Johnstone’s marble palace was now strong upon her. Hawke paused, still keeping his pleading eyes fixed upon the fluttering-hearted woman’s face. “Miss Nadine sees absolutely no one!” murmured the governess, “and, of course, I never leave her. It is a very exacting and laborious position, this charge which I now fill, and of course the life is a very lonely one, though Nadine is an angel!” enthusiastically cried Miss Justine. “And so,” earnestly said Major Alan Hawke, “I am absolutely prevented from seeing you, unless you will trust yourself to me, and come here again.” The frightened woman cast a glance at the unfamiliar loveliness of the secluded garden, with the hidden kiosques, sacred to Ram Lal’s furtive amours. “I dare not!” she said, with trembling lips. “I would like to come, but--” “Listen!” said Alan Hawke, softly taking her unresisting hand, “I will confide in you. I must, even to-day, go to Hugh Johnstone’s house. He has bidden me to a private interview. And he gives a tiffin in my honor. I have known him in past years. He does not as yet know of my official position. My duties are secret. My very honor forbids me to divulge it. I dare not openly acknowledge an acquaintance with you, with your sister. It rests with you that we meet again, for my sake, for your own sake, for your sister’s sake. I cannot lose you for a mere quibble.” There was a genuine alarm in Justine Delande’s voice as she started up, crying out, “You come to us to-day?”