"I promise to keep silent," he answered, with his gaze upon her. She drew away from him, keeping her eyes full on his, and holding him at arm's length with the tips of her fingers. He felt that she was still shaken by his embrace--that she was still in a quiver from his kisses; but to all outward seeming she had regained the noble composure of her bearing. "No, no. Ah, listen, my friend, and do not touch me. What I must tell you is this, and you must hear me patiently to the end. I have loved you always--from the first day; since the beginning. There has never been any one else, and there has never been a moment in my life when I would not have followed you had you lifted a finger anywhere. At first I did not know--I did not believe it. It was but a passing fancy, I thought, that you had murdered. I taught myself to believe that I was cold, inhuman, because I did not warm to other men. Oh, I did not know then that I was not stone, but ice, which would melt at the first touch of the true flame ." "Maria!" he burst out in a cry of anguish. "Hush! Hush! Remember your promise. It was not until afterward," she went on in the same quiet voice; "it was not until my marriage--not until my soul shuddered back from his embraces and I dreamed of you, that I began to see--to understand." "Oh, Maria, my beloved, if I had known!" She still held him from her with her outstretched arm. "It was the knowledge of this that made me feel that I had wronged him--that I had defrauded him of the soul of love and given him only the poor flesh. It was this that held me to him all those wretched years--that kept me with him till the end, even through his madness. At last I buried your memory, told myself that I had forgotten." "We will let the world go, dearest," he said passionately. "Come to me." But she shook her head, and, still smiling, held him at a distance. "It will never go," she answered, "for it is not the world's way. But whatever comes to us, there is one thing you must remember--that you must never forget for one instant while you live. In good or evil, in life or death, there is no height so high nor any depth so low that I will not follow you." Then waving him from her with a decisive gesture, she turned from him and went swiftly home across the moonlit fields. CHAPTER VI. Treats of the Tragedy Which Wears a Comic Mask As she hastened on, Christopher's presence was still with her--his arm still enveloped her, his voice still spoke in her ears; and so rapt was the ecstasy in which she moved that it was with a positive shock that she found herself presently before the little area which led into the brick kitchen in the basement of the Hall. Here from the darkness her name was spoken in a stifled voice, while a hand reached out and clutched her by the shoulder. "I say, Maria, I've been waiting hours to speak to you."