"No," he said, "I cannot deliver the message now. Some day, when time has worked its changes, I will tell you word for word. Be satisfied when I assure you that your brother's message will not affect his position in the least, and will be better told later on." She looked at him half wonderingly, and it seemed to him that there was doubt in her eyes. "Can you not have faith in me," he said quietly, "and believe when I tell you that it is better that I should not speak?" "Yes," she said softly, "I will have faith in you and wait." "I thank you," he said gravely. "Now tell me more about Harry." "There is very little to tell," replied Leslie. "As I went down-stairs that day, I found him just about to enter the house. For a moment I was startled, but I am not a superstitious man, and I grasped at once how we had all been deceived, and who it was dealt me the blow and tripped me that night; and in the reaction which came upon me, I seized him, and dragged him to the first cab I could find. "I was half mad with delight," continued Leslie, speaking, in spite of his burning words, in a slow, calm, respectful way. "I saw how I had been deceived that night, who had been your companion, and why you had kept silence. For the time I hardly knew what I did or said in my delirious joy, but I was brought to myself, as I sat holding your brother's wrist tightly, by his saying slowly, "`There, I'm sick of it. You can leave go. I shan't try to get away. It's all over now.'" "He thought you had made him a prisoner?" "Yes; and I thought him a messenger of peace, who had come to point out my folly, weakness, and want of faith." Louise covered her face with her hands, and he saw that she was sobbing gently. "It was some time before I could speak," continued Leslie. "I was still holding his wrist tightly, and it was not until he spoke again that I felt as if I could explain. "`Where are you taking me?' he said. `Is it necessary for Mr Leslie, my father's friend, to play policeman in the case?' "`When will you learn to believe and trust in me, Harry, Vine?' I said. "`Never,' he replied bitterly, and in the gladness of my heart I laughed, and could have taken him in my arms and embraced him as one would a lost brother just returned to us from the dead. "`You will repent that,' I said, and I felt then that my course was marked out, and I could see my way." Louise let fall her hands, and sank into a chair, her eyes dilating as she gazed earnestly at the quiet, enduring man, who now narrated to her much that was new; and ever as he spoke something in her brain seemed to keep on repeating in a low and constant repetition, "He loves me--he loves me--but it can never be." "`Where am I taking you?' I said," continued Leslie. "`To where you can make a fresh start in life.'" And as Louise gazed at him she saw that he was looking fixedly at the spot upon the carpet where her brother had last stood when he was in that room. "`Not to--'