"Dear," she said softly, "perhaps I do care for you a little. Perhaps--well, some time in the future--what you are thinking of might be possible; I cannot say. Something, apart from you, has happened, which has changed my life. You must let me go for a little while. But I will promise you this. The entanglement of which you spoke shall be broken off. I will have no more to do with that man!" He sat upright. "Helène," he said, "you are making me very happy, but there is one thing which I must ask you, and which you must forgive me for asking. This entanglement of which you speak has nothing to do with Mr. Sabin?" "Nothing whatever," she answered promptly. "How I should like to tell you everything! But I have made a solemn promise, and I must keep it. My lips are sealed. But one thing I should like you to understand, in case you have ever had any doubt about it. Mr. Sabin is really my uncle, my mother's brother. He is engaged in a great enterprise in which I am a necessary figure. He has suddenly become very much afraid of you." "Afraid of me!" Wolfenden repeated. She nodded. "I ought to tell you, perhaps, that my marriage with some one else is necessary to insure the full success of his plans. So you see he has set himself to keep us apart." "The more you tell me, the more bewildered I get," Wolfenden declared. "What made him attack me just now without any warning? Surely he did not wish to kill me?" Her hand within his seemed to grow colder. "You were imprudent," she said. "Imprudent! In what way?" "You told him that you had sent for Mr. C. to come and go through your father's papers." "What of it?" "I cannot tell you any more!" Wolfenden rose to his feet; he was still giddy, but he was able to stand. "All that he told me here was a tissue of lies then! Helène, I will not leave you with such a man. You cannot continue to live with him." "I do not intend to," she answered; "I want to get away. What has happened to-day is more than I can pardon, even from him. Yet you must not judge him too harshly. In his way he is a great man, and he is planning great things which are not wholly for his advantage. But he is unscrupulous! So long as the end is great, he believes himself justified in stooping to any means." Wolfenden shuddered. "You must not live another day with him," he exclaimed; "you will come to Deringham Hall. My mother will be only too glad to come and fetch you. It is not very cheerful there just now, but anything is better than leaving you with this man." She looked at him curiously. Her eyes were soft with something which suggested pity, but resembled tears. "No," she said, "that would not do at all. You must not think because I have been living with Mr. Sabin that I have no other relations or friends. I have a very great many of both, only it was arranged that I should leave them for a while. I can go back at any time; I am altogether my own mistress."