She had taken his arm, and they were walking in silence beneath the fast-baring branches through the half-light of the fading day, when suddenly he turned to her, saying--"I've been thinking, Gemma--thinking very deeply upon all you told me this morning. I must tell you the truth--the truth that it is impossible for me to have complete confidence in you if you have none in me. The more I reflect upon this strange secret, the more am I filled with suspicion. I cannot help it. I have struggled against all my doubts and fears--but--" "You do not trust me?" she cried hoarsely. "Did I not express fear only this morning that you would be impatient, and grow tired of the steady refusals I am compelled to give you when you demand the truth?" "Having carefully considered all the facts, I can see no reason-- absolutely none--why you should not explain the whole truth," he said rather brusquely. "The facts you have considered are those only within your own knowledge," she observed. "There are others which you can never know. If you could only understand the situation aright, you would at once see plainly the reason that I am prepared for any sacrifice--even to lose your love, the most precious gift that Heaven has accorded me--in order to preserve my secret." "Then you are ready to wish me farewell if I still press for the truth?" he cried, dismayed; for the earnestness of her words impressed him forcibly. "I am," she answered in a low, intense voice. They had halted in the broad, gravelled walk, and were alone. "Listen!" he cried fiercely, as a sudden resolve seized him. "This cannot go on longer, Gemma. I have brought you here to London because I love you, because I hoped to make you my you wife. But you seem determined to keep all the story of your past from me." Then, recollecting Malvano's words when they had been shooting together, he added, "If you still refuse to tell me anything, then, much as it grieves me, we must part." "Part!" she echoed wildly. "Ah yes, Nino! I knew you would say that. Did I not tell you long, long ago, that it would be impossible for us to marry in the present circumstances? You doubt me? Well, I am scarcely surprised!" and she shuddered pale as death. "I doubt you because you are never frank with me." "I love you, Nino," she protested with all the ardour of her hot Italian blood as she caught his hand suddenly and raised it to her fevered lips. "You are my very life, for I have no other friend in the world. Surely you have been convinced that my affection is genuine, but I have not deceived you in this!" "I believe you love me," he answered coldly, in a half-dubious tone nevertheless. "Ah no, caro!" she lisped softly, reproachfully, in her soft Tuscan. "Do not speak like that. I cannot bear it. If you can trust me no longer, then let us part. I--I will go back to Italy again." And she burst into a torrent of hot tears.