Trevithick looked at her as if he could not take in what he heard. "You are mad, Kitty," he said slowly. "She is engaged to me." "I have her word for it, Anthony. There is something wrong, I am sure. She has just written it to me." "Show me the letter, Kitty." She went to an escritoire in the corner of the room, found the letter, and brought it to him. He read it with staring eyes. "She won't marry him," he said when he had finished. "My poor Anthony!" "An engagement is nothing. She was engaged to me. She let me kiss her. He is a man with money--I remember now. Do women sell their souls for money, Kitty?" "Some women might, Anthony, but I don't think Pamela would. There is something wrong, Anthony, I am sure of it." "I am going to find out, Kitty." [Illustration: Something in the attitude smote her.--_p. 446._] He turned his angry, miserable young face upon her, and her heart was wrung for him. "I am going over there to-night, Kitty." "You will do nothing rash, Anthony?" "If I find that anything but her own will has come between us, I will do my best to win her back from him. I have the right, Kitty. I was the first, and she let me kiss her." "You say she was engaged to you, Anthony? Do you mean formally?" "Everything _but_ formally. Ah! I wish I had settled it then--put a ring on her before them all. It was my mother. She made me promise to do nothing till I came back." "Oh! she knew, then?" "I told her, Kitty, and she was bitterly angry. And I, mad that I was, I yielded to her will. Afterwards, when I heard she had found them out, and got Pam over here, I thought her heart had softened to me after all those years, and that she was helping me towards my happiness." "Why did she make you promise that?" "I am ashamed to say it, Kitty--because she persuaded me you cared for me, and ought not to be told suddenly. I beg your pardon, Kitty; I was not ass enough to think it of myself!" "Ah!" said Lady Kitty again, and her eyes were thoughtful, "and poor little Pam was miserable. I don't believe they ever had that letter, Anthony." "If she was miserable for me"--and the lover's face lightened--"she loves me still, and she must give up the other man for me. If she loves me, he has no right to her. I am going to find out, Kitty." "Where are you going now, Anthony?" "There are twenty things to be done. I have to see Uncle Wilton and tell him I am going. Knowles understands what to do for him, and to call Dr. Berners if he were ill." He took up her hand and kissed it. "You've been a good little girl to me, Kitty," he said. "Afterwards I am going to fight for my love." As the door closed behind him Lady Kitty went thoughtfully upstairs and knocked at Lady Jane's boudoir door. "May I come in, Auntie Jane?" she said; "are you very busy?" Lady Jane looked up from her books with an air of expectation, as if there might be something pleasant to hear; but her expression changed immediately. "What is the matter, Kitty?" she asked.