"No!--you will love her for my sake." "I can't promise. There are two selves in me. All your Catholic friends--Father Leadham--the Reverend Mother--will be in despair." She saw him wince. But he spoke firmly. "I ask only what is lawful. I am free in such a matter to choose my own path--under my conscience." She said nothing for a little. But she pondered on all that he might be facing and sacrificing for such a marriage. Once a cloud of sudden misgiving descended upon her, as though, a bird had brushed her with its black wing. But she shook it away. Her little hand crept back to him--while her face was still hidden from him. "I ought not to marry you--but--but I will. There--take me!--will you guide me?" "With all my strength!" "Will you fight me?" He laughed. "To the best of my ability--when I must. Did I do it well--that night--about the ghost?" She shrugged her shoulders--half laughing, half crying. "No!--you were violent--impossible. Will you never, never let me get the upper hand?" "How would you do it?--little atom!" He bent over her, trying to see her face, but she pressed him away from her. "Make me afraid to mock at your beliefs!" she said passionately; "make me afraid!--there is no other way." "Laura!" At last she let his arms have their will. And it was time. The exhaustion which had been driven back for the moment by food and excitement returned upon her with paralysing force. Helbeck woke to a new and stronger alarm. He half led, half carried her through the hall, on the way to Augustina. At the foot of the stairs, as Laura was making a tottering effort to climb them with Helbeck's arm round her, Mrs. Denton came out of the dining-room straight upon them. She carried a pan and brush, and had evidently just begun her morning work. At sight of her Laura started; but Helbeck gave her no chance to withdraw herself. He turned quietly to his housekeeper, who stood transfixed. "Good-morning, Denton. Miss Fountain has just returned, having walked most of the way from Braeside. She is very tired, as you see--let some breakfast be got ready for her at once. And let me tell you now--what I should anyway have told you a few hours later--that Miss Fountain has promised to be my wife." He spoke with a cold dignity, scanning the woman closely. Mrs. Denton grew very white. But she dropped a curtesy in old Westmoreland fashion. "I wish you joy, sir--and Miss Fountain, too." Her voice was low and mumbling, but Helbeck gave her a cheerful nod. "Thank you. I shall be downstairs again as soon as I have taken Miss Fountain to my sister--and I, too, should be glad of some breakfast." "He's been agate all night," said the housekeeper to herself, as she entered the study and looked at the chairs, the lamp which its master had forgotten to extinguish, the open window. "An where's she been? Who knows? I saw it from the first. It's a bewitchment--an it'll coom to noa good." She went about her dusting with a shaking hand.