"Only," he continued, still with a deep solemnity of voice that went to her heart, "when I do so come I shall come to tell you that alone--there will be with that news no pleadings of love upon my tongue. You have doubted, but just now, whether you have not seen my brother's murderer standing before you, whether the kiss of Cain has not been upon your lips. You have reproached me for my silence, you have cast me off, unless I can prove myself not an assassin. Well, so be it! By the blessing of heaven, I will prove it--but for the love which you have withdrawn from me I will ask no more. You say it is to be mine again conditionally. I will not take it back, either with or without conditions. It is restored to you; it would be best that henceforth you should keep it." Then, with but the slightest inclination of his head, he left her, and went out from the house. And Ida, after once endeavouring to make her lips utter the name of Gervase, fell prostrate on the couch. "He will never come back to me," she wailed; "he will never come back. I have thrown his love away for ever. God forgive and pity me." CHAPTER XV. "I knew him intimately," Señor Guffanta said, "it is about him and his murder that I have come to talk." These were the words with which he had responded to Lord Penlyn's reception of him; and, as he uttered them, a hope had sprung up into the young man's breast that, in the handsome Spaniard who stood before him, some one might have been found who, from his knowledge of his brother, would be able to throw some light upon, or clue to, his death. "I cannot tell you," he said, "how welcome this information is to me. We have tried everything in our power to gather some knowledge that might lead towards finding--first, some one who would be likely to have a reason for his death; and, afterwards, the man who killed him. If you knew him intimately, it may be that you can assist us." The Señor had taken the seat offered him by Penlyn, and from the time that he had first sat down, until now, he had not removed his dark piercing eyes from the other's face. But, as he continued to fix his glance upon Penlyn, there had come into his own face a look of surprise, a look that seemed to express a baffled feeling of consternation. "_Caramba_," he said to himself while the other was speaking. "_Caramba_, what mystery is there here? I have made a mistake. I have erred in some way; how have I deceived myself? Yet I could have sworn by the blood of San Pedro that I was sure." Then, when Lord Penlyn had ceased speaking, he said aloud: "You will pardon me--but I am labouring under no mistake? You are Lord Penlyn?" The other looked at him for a moment, wondering what such a question meant. Then he answered him: "There is no mistake. I am Lord Penlyn." The Spaniard passed his hand across his eyes as he heard this, but did not speak; and Lord Penlyn said: "May I ask why you inquire?"