"Can't you guess?" He came a step nearer and spoke softly. Beatrice, feeling strange, as was natural considering the circumstance, laughed in an embarrassed manner. "How can I guess?" "Because you must have seen what I meant in my eyes, Beatrice. I want you to be my wife." Her heart beat loudly as though it would give Vivian its answer without speech. "I don't understand," she said abruptly. "Surely you must have seen----" "Oh yes, I saw," she interrupted rapidly, "I saw that you loved me. I also saw that you held back from asking me to marry you." "I had a reason," he said, after a pause; "that reason is now removed, and I can ask you, as I do with all my heart and soul, to be my wife. Dearest, I love you." "Can I believe that?" "I swear it!" he breathed passionately. "But the reason?" Paslow hesitated. "It was connected with money," he confessed at last. "Your father--or, rather, your stepfather--had a mortgage on nearly the whole of my property. I have lately inherited a small sum of money, and went to-day to ask Mr. Alpenny to arrange about paying off part of the mortgage. He accused me of wishing to rob him." "But why, when you desired to pay off the mortgage?" "I can't say. I think"--Vivian hesitated--"I think that he wishes to get possession of the Grange." "And his reason?" "I can't tell you that. But the moment I offered to pay the money he burst out into a rage and said that I wanted to rob him. Then I warned him as to something I had heard against him in London." "What is that?" she asked in startled tones. "I dare not tell you just now." "Is it connected with the Black Patch?" "Not that I know of. And what do you know of the Black Patch?" "I know nothing. I heard it mentioned--whatever it is--for the first time to-day, and by you. The effect on Mr. Alpenny was so strange that I wish to know what the Black Patch means." "I do not know myself," said Vivian earnestly. "Listen, my dear girl. The other night I found on my desk a scrap of paper, and on it was written--or, rather, I should say printed, for the person who wrote printed the letters--'If Alpenny objects, say "Remember the Black Patch."'" Beatrice listened, bewildered. "What does that mean?" "I can't say. But when driven into a corner by his language I used the very words on the scrap of paper. You saw their effect." "It is strange," said Beatrice; then remembering what the miser had said to her, she grasped her lover's arm. "Vivian, he told me that you had committed crimes." "What a liar! I have committed no crimes, save that I have indulged in the usual follies of a young man whose parents died before they could guide him properly. What does he mean?" "I can't say. But I think he wished to make me mistrust you."