"Susan!" I cried. "Gibson! Listen! Let Susan come to me for one minute. Something tremendous has happened to-night, and I am bound to let her know it. Susan, come here. When you have heard it, you shall go with Gibson or come home with me, just as you think best." Before he could restrain her, she slipped from his grasp and ran to my side. He followed. I threw my arm round her waist. "If you please, Ma’am," said Gibson tensely, standing almost as close to me as Susan, "there’s going to be no more secrets. What’s right to be said at all can be said out loud." I considered. Then I spoke out clearly and loudly. "Very well. Have it so. But it would have been easier for Susan to hear it alone. Susan, there has been some dreadful, horrible mistake. It was not you, Susan, whom Lord Ruddington saw at Derlingham and in Traxelby church. He was misinformed. He has never seen you in his life. He does not want to marry you." Susan stared at me, first, with a face as white as chalk. Then she reddened like a rose, and moaned like one wounded, with a choking moan. "No, Miss Gertrude, no!" she pleaded in anguish, "Don’t say it wasn’t real. Don’t say..." "My poor Susan," I answered, "it wasn’t real. But what does it matter? You have given him up for Gibson." "No," she cried, with a sudden burst of wild and terrible grief. "I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t! He wasn’t mine to give." I hesitated, wondering whether to tell her that Ruddington had indeed been hers to give, because he was willing to sacrifice himself to the end. But I decided not to try her poor wits any more. "You are wrong, Susan," I said gently. "It’s true he wasn’t yours to give. But you believed he was. It is all the same. Gibson, she gave up money, and luxury, and a splendid name, all for you!" "And, if you please, Ma’am," demanded Gibson, "how do we know all this is true? If it wasn’t Susan he saw in Derlingham, who was it? If he didn’t fall in love with Susan, who did he fall in love with? If he doesn’t want to marry Susan, who is it that he does want to marry? No, Ma’am, I’m not taking any more risks. To-morrow, perhaps, we shall find it’s Susan after all." I turned to beckon towards the high bush. But Ruddington was already over the stones, I saw him and held my tongue. He came so quietly, so masterfully, that I knew I had only to listen and look on. "You are Susan?" he said kindly in her ear. Susan looked up and gave a piercing shriek. "It’s him, it’s him!" she screamed. "Don’t be afraid, Susan," he said gently. "Miss Langley has told you that you have no more to fear. Some other day, you shall know all. To-night, let me just tell you, on my honour, that it was not my fault. If it had been my fault, I should never forgive myself for causing you all this worry and pain. Depend on me to do all I can to make you and Gibson happy. Tell me that you will try to forgive me."