A week later the dreaded confession of her vow had been made by Shanno to her mother, and in spite of Lady Bryn Afon's heart-broken tears and entreaties, and refusal to believe that the shadow of the curse could possibly have fallen upon that pure young life, she held fast to her resolution, never to marry him whom she loved with all the intensity and devotion of her true woman's heart, never to hand on the curse of Ap Gryffyth to future generations, but to be herself its last innocent victim,--to offer up herself and her love as a sacrifice to Him who alone knew all it cost her to make it, and to trust to His love and to Percival's unalterable devotion, which she never dreamed of doubting, to sustain her through the coming weary years of life which might remain to her. How bitter it was to her, apart from her own bitter suffering, to inflict such grievous pain on the mother who had given up so much for her, it would be hard to tell; and over Lady Bryn Afon's agony of sorrow and disappointment, and misery at the sight of her darling's ill-concealed suffering, we must draw a veil. It yet remained to break the still unsuspected truth to her lover, and bracing every nerve for the painful task, sorely mistrusting the while her own powers of endurance when put to so fiery a test, she set out with him one bright evening for the mystic pool, with feet that trembled beneath her from bodily weakness as well as mental anguish. As yet Percival had waited patiently, cherishing every mark of returning health which he could note day by day in her appearance, wondering often at the signs of suffering and weakness which, in Lady Bryn Afon, only seemed to increase daily as her daughter regained strength, but ascribing them only to her long anxious watching, and the added care she must needs feel on the departure of her faithful physician, whom, for her husband's sake, she dared no longer keep at Shanno's bedside, when once he could honestly assure her that all fear for her life was past. Also Percival could well ascribe such marks of suffering on the mother's part to her natural grief at so cruel a revealing of her long-hidden secret; and with the strong self-repression into which he had long schooled himself, he waited, asking no question till Primrose herself should be able to give him the explanation he so longed for, of the strange effect the knowledge of the curse had produced upon her.