"You here--you here!" he muttered with cold lips. "In these rooms! and why here at all?" And he held his hands before him to keep her back. "Miles," she cried, still advancing; and though the face grew pale with some sudden fear of untimely birth, for it was so unexpected, yet the brow was clear and pure to all but a jealous man. "You know wherefore I am here; think--you must be mad!" "Mad!" he echoed, staring wildly; "I must be mad, or dreaming!--you were locked in, and in _these_ rooms." "Where am I?" she cried, looking hurriedly round. "Do you not know," he articulated beneath his breath, "or are you deceiving me? These are Lord Randolph Gray's private apartments." "His!" she whispered, dropping on a seat; "I thought they were yours." Poor girl! her limbs tottered beneath her weight. "You will drive me mad," he cried, seizing her trembling hands; "tell me, in Heaven's name--tell me how you came here, and why?" "I came," she ejaculated half in surprise and half in fear, "because you sent for me; but why am I in these rooms, why not in yours?" She did not yet understand his suspicions; her fears arose from his strange excitement; she began to fear for his reason, thinking that he had sent for her. "Woman!" he cried in agony, wringing her cold hands, "I never called you hither, and this you must know." She could not speak, but sat silently staring at him, her eyes distended with terror. "Speak--speak truth, if you _dare_--and tell me why you are here? and how? for I am nearly mad; do you not see it, woman? I conjure you, speak." "Speak you!" she whispered, "and tell me your hidden meaning; you affright me with these spirit thoughts. Embody them, Miles; for I dare not believe my heart's fear." "Speak them!" he exclaimed, "do they need speech? No! your guilty soul has uttered them to your terror-stricken frame; you have done, and now you shudder at your own act. Woman, I am doubly deceived, deceived when this day I took you to my loving heart, deceived when I was lured from my home that you might come hither in secret, but I will have revenge, where revenge may be taken." And casting her hands from him, which he had held grasped in his, he sprung towards the door, but like lightning she was before him, and placing her slight form, now nerved by resolution against it, she said, "Miles, I bore much this day patiently, for I had been guilty of concealment, though done for a worthy purpose; but now, that my soul is clear of any wilful sin against you, in the sight of Heaven, I _demand_ that you should hear me." "Speak," he said coldly folding his arms, "my revenge can wait."