"And you have never said a word to me! Oh, Julia, you didn't trust me." He shook his head at her mournfully. "Trust you!" she retorted. "Did you trust me? But I would have trusted you," she added, gazing fondly into his eyes, "if I had dared risk the punishment that will surely be meted out to me if it is known I have done so. You don't know how rigid the rules of our society are. But you haven't told me yet if you have the list." "Not I," he said. "I never heard of its existence. I suppose that anonymous letter that came addressed to Uncle Douglas after his death had something to do with that." "Did a letter come from Paris? They sent them to him from time to time. It prevented his suspecting me. But you will give me the list if you find it, won't you? It means everything to me." "Of course I will," he promised. "It is no earthly good to me, so far as I know. But you, when you were looking for it, did you, among all the papers you examined, ever come across such a thing as a will?" "No, never," she replied. "Mrs. Clutsam told me it could not be found. You may be sure, if I had discovered one which did not leave you everything, I should have destroyed it." "Dear little Julia!" Mark drew her to him and kissed her. "How sweet you are. There is no one like you!" "Really? Do you really love me, Mark?" "Darling, of course I do." "Will you always? Are you quite, quite sure that I am the one girl in all the world for you, as you are the one man for me?" "Darling, you are the only one in the world I have ever so much as looked at." "Would you never, never forget me, or marry anyone else, no matter what happened?" "Never," he assured her, "never." She sighed contentedly. "What should I do if you forgot me, Mark? I should die. But," she added in a different tone, "I think I should kill you first!" Mark laughed a little uneasily. "Hush, hush," he said, "you mustn't talk so much about killing. A minute ago you were talking of killing my poor old uncle. If I took you seriously what should I think? It is lucky I love you as I do, otherwise doesn't it occur to you that it might get you into trouble to talk in this wild way?" "You can take me as seriously as you like," she answered gravely. "I am serious enough, God knows. But I shouldn't talk about it, even to you, if I didn't _know_ it was safe. You see, I know you are like me." "Like you? I'm dashed if I am! How do you mean? I am like you?" She looked at him squarely, and nodded. "Yes," she said, "you are like me. You would not hesitate to kill if you thought it necessary. You think just the same as me on that subject. Only you have gone farther than I have--yet." "Julia," he cried, "what do you mean?" "I mean that I know all about you, Mark," she replied gravely. "I know what you think you have kept secret from me. I know it was you who killed your uncle." With a muffled cry Mark shook himself free, and sprang away from her.