"Oh! indeed it is sufficient," she moaned, wringing her hands in anguish. "I implore you to let me go." "Let me be the judge," he answered again. "Tell me your reasons for this wild step." She was silent from sheer despair. "Bonnibel, will you tell me the secret?" he urged, feverishly. "I cannot. I cannot! Do not ask me!" she answered pleadingly. "What if I demand it from Mr. Dane?" he said, threateningly. "I do not believe he will tell you," she answered bitterly. "If he did you would regret that you learned it. Oh! believe me, Colonel Carlyle, that 'ignorance is bliss' to you in this case. Oh! be merciful and let me go!" "Would you know what answer your artist lover sent to your wild appeal?" he exclaimed abruptly. She looked at him wildly. He straightened out the sheet and read over the words that Leslie Dane had written, in a bitter, mocking tone. "Leslie Dane," he repeated. "Leslie Dane! Why, this is the first time I have caught the villain's name aright! It seems familiar. I have heard it somewhere long ago--let me think." In a sudden excess of excitement he dropped the note and paced furiously up and down the room. Bonnibel watched him forlornly under her drooping lashes. He stopped suddenly with a violent start, and looked at her sternly. "I have it now," he said triumphantly. "My God! it is worse than I thought; but when I knew his real name it all rushed over me! Yes, Bonnibel, I know the fatal secret now, that you, oh! my God, share with that miserable wretch!" "Oh! no, you cannot know it," she breathed! "I do know it," he answered sternly. "I remember it all now. Leslie Dane is that guilty man who rests at this moment under the charge of murdering your uncle!" "It is false!" she exclaimed, confronting him indignantly. "No one ever breathed such a foul aspersion upon Leslie Dane but you!" "Great God! do you deny it?" he exclaimed in genuine surprise and amazement. "Surely your brain is turned, Bonnibel. Everyone knows that Leslie Dane was convicted of the murder on circumstantial evidence; everyone knows that he fled the country and has been in hiding ever since. But the fatal charge is still hanging over his head." "I have never heard such a thing before, never! And I would believe that Leslie Dane was guiltless in the face of all the evidence in the world! He is the very soul of honor! He could not do a cowardly act to save his life!" exclaimed Bonnibel, springing up in a fever of passionate excitement. Colonel Carlyle was fairly maddened by her words. "You shall see whether he be guilty or not," he exclaimed, leaving the room in a rage. Bonnibel heard the key grate in the lock outside, and discovered, to her dismay, that she was Colonel Carlyle's prisoner in truth. CHAPTER XXIX. "You went off from the ball in a hurry last night, Leslie. Why did you not stop for me?"