"What do you mean?" "Why, don't you see my position? If this evidence gets to the police it will mean immediate action on the part of some of the smartest detectives in London--in fact, everywhere additional particulars of your brother and this crime will be sent. Within a month he may be caught and within another month have to stand his trial! What happens then? Why, in all probability it will transpire, or out of sheer spite at me--for he bears me no love I can tell you--he will say how we met at your house, and how I, knowing well who he was, failed to give notice to the authorities, as I should have done for your sake. Think then of the position I am in--in fact, of the position we both are in!" "My God!" she cried, "that must not be. You must run no risks. You must not consider me. Oh, if anything were to happen to you through this!--through me! If necessary you must act at once--you must give him up before this fresh charge comes." "First of all I think we had better inquire a little more closely into the value of this boy's evidence. He is an unscrupulous young liar, as I have already proved. Then we will act accordingly. Meanwhile, there is not the least need for you to alarm yourself. You can safely leave the whole affair in my hands. But there is something else I would like you to tell me if you will--that is, how, in the first instance, you came into contact with my uncle. I know partly it was through a governess agency, but somehow--I--I have often thought there was something more--something that you would tell me of your own accord perhaps some day?" "Yes," she answered simply, "you are right, there is. And I had fully intended to tell you. Your friendship deserves----" "Friendship, Miriam?" "Let us call it that--it is best so. But before I can tell you exactly how I came to meet with Mr. Barton, I must tell you of my life before that time. It will not be pleasant hearing for you. It is terrible to me, even now, to go back to it, for it was a time of darkness and of deprivation, of absolute want, and of the most acute suffering, physical and mental." He looked at her with a whole world of pity in his eyes. "Don't, if it pains you so," he said.