“I floated with the current. I was incapable of reasoning, as much so as any one bereft of their natural senses. One night I was behind the scenes; the house took fire. There was a fearful panic, and hundreds were injured--many killed. This young girl clung to me, and somehow I carried her out of the theater by the stage-door--I believe so, for I remembered nothing from the time I caught her up in my arms until a moment of amazed weakness, when I woke up to find myself lying in a strange room, this girl sitting by me. I then learned that, as I rushed out, bearing her in my arms, a blazing beam of timber had fallen, and dangerously wounded me.” An exclamation escaped Mrs. Desfrayne, and she half-rose from her seat. “What am I to hear?” she cried, as if in anguish. “And you never told me of this illness!” “Let me finish, now that I have begun. I had been ill for weeks in the old home on the outskirts of Florence, where this girl lived, with her aged attendant or relative. Unhappily--most unhappily--they both imagined I was an English milord. I believe that my servant had deceived them by bragging of my wealth and importance.” “How did he dare to permit you to remain in that place instead of having you carried to your own lodgings?” demanded Mrs. Desfrayne. “When I fell, the girl and I were put into some kind of vehicle, and she took me to her own home. Her object was, I believe, to have me under the immediate pressure of her influence. When Reynolds, my servant, heard of what had occurred, he flew to my side; but the physician who attended me would not, or could not, hear of my removal. Reynolds, poor soul, was seized, a day or two after, with a fever, from which he did not recover for months.” “I see now the drift of your history,” said Mrs. Desfrayne, in a tone which showed that she was wounded to the depths of her heart. “It is the hackneyed story of the young man who falls ill marrying the handsome young woman who nurses him.” Captain Desfrayne turned aside, and took a hasty stride to and fro; then he returned, resuming his position. “She was, or pretended to be, full of joy and gratitude on my recovery. During the days of my convalescence, she spoke to me fully of her state of bondage, her anger at the injustice done her, her desire for liberty, and affected to make no secret of what she averred was desperate love for myself. My sympathies were enlisted for her; my vanity was aroused in her favor. I at length----” “Asked her to marry you?” laughed his mother. “No. Her agreement with the manager bound her for ten years, under a heavy penalty. I desired that she should leave the stage, although I felt it would be next to an impossibility to marry this girl. I remembered your strong prejudices against stage-performers----” “Ah! You did think of me once.”