This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath and David Widger CHAPTER XLI. The lawyer came the next day, and with something like a smile on his lips. He brought me a few lines in pencil from Mrs. Ashleigh; they were kindly expressed, bade me be of good cheer; "she never for a moment believed in my guilt; Lilian bore up wonderfully under so terrible a trial; it was an unspeakable comfort to both to receive the visits of a friend so attached to me, and so confident of a triumphant refutation of the hideous calumny under which I now suffered as Mr. Margrave!" The lawyer had seen Margrave again,--seen him in that house. Margrave seemed almost domiciled there! I remained sullen and taciturn during this visit. I longed again for the night. Night came. I heard the distant clock strike twelve, when again the icy wind passed through my hair, and against the wall stood the luminous Shadow. "Have you considered?" whispered the voice, still as from afar. "I repeat it,--I alone can save you." "Is it among the conditions which you ask, in return, that I shall resign to you the woman I love?" "No." "Is it one of the conditions that I should commit some crime,--a crime perhaps heinous as that of which I am accused?" "No." "With such reservations, I accept the conditions you may name, provided I, in my turn, may demand one condition from yourself." "Name it." "I ask you to quit this town. I ask you, meanwhile, to cease your visits to the house that holds the woman betrothed to me." "I will cease those visits. And before many days are over, I will quit this town." "Now, then, say what you ask from me. I am prepared to concede it. And not from fear for myself, but because I fear for the pure and innocent being who is under the spell of your deadly fascination. This is your power over me. You command me through my love for another. Speak." "My conditions are simple. You will pledge yourself to desist from all charges of insinuation against myself, of what nature soever. You will not, when you meet me in the flesh, refer to what you have known of my likeness in the Shadow. You will be invited to the house at which I may be also a guest; you will come; you will meet and converse with me as guest speaks with guest in the house of a host." "Is that all?" "It is all." "Then I pledge you my faith; keep your own." "Fear not; sleep secure in the certainty that you will soon be released from these walls." The Shadow waned and faded. Darkness settled back, and a sleep, profound and calm, fell over me.