She had gone too far. As the cruel, fearful words left her lips in all their biting, merciless scorn and contempt, he sprang upon her and seized her by the arm. Her feet slipped, and she turned and clung to him, half her body hanging over the white foaming water. For a moment they stood there, his gleaming eyes threatening death into hers, then, with a sudden long breath as if he had mastered his murderous impulse, he stepped backward, and drew her with him into safety. "Take care!" he said, wiping the perspiration from his white forehead with a trembling hand. "Your ladyship nearly went too far! You forget that I love this girl, as you call her, though she is an angel of light and a star of nobility beside you, who stoop to open letters and utter slander! Take care!" She eyed him with a cruel scorn in her eyes and on her lips, that were white and shamed. "You would murder me," she said. He laughed a low, dry laugh. "I would murder anyone who spoke of her as you spoke," he said, with quiet intensity. "So be warned, my lady. For the future, teach your proud temper respect when it touches her name. Besides"--and he made a gesture as of contempt--"it was a foolish lie. You know that he intended nothing of the kind; you know that she is too pure even for his dastardly heart to compass her destruction. I imagine it is that which makes you hate her so. Is it not? No matter. Now that you are warned, and that you have learnt that I, Jasper Adelstone, am no mere slave to dance or writhe at your pleasure, we will return to the purport of the meeting. Will you not sit down?" and he pointed to the weir stage. She was trembling from sheer physical weakness, combined with impotent rage and fury, but she would rather have died than obey him. "Go on," she said. "What have you to say?" "This," he returned. "That this marriage must be prevented, and that Miss Etheridge's good name must be preserved and protected. I can prevent this marriage even now, at the last hour. I will do so, on the condition that you give me your promise that you will never while life lasts speak of this. I have not much fear that you will do so; even you will hesitate before you proclaim to a third person your capability of opening another person's letters!" "I promise," she said, coldly. "And how will you prevent this? You do not know the man against whom you intend to pit yourself. Beware of him! Lord Leycester is a man who will not be trifled with." "Thanks" he retorted. "You are very kind to warn me, especially as you would very much like to see me at Lord Leycester's feet. But I need no warning. I deal with her, not with him. How, is my affair." She rose. "I will go," she said, coldly. "Stay," he said; "you have got your part to do!" She eyed him with haughty surprise. "I?" He nodded. "Let me think for a moment," and he took a turn on the path, then he came back and stood beside her.