"Say it is somebody else’s secret, and that his life, his career, depends upon it. Say it couldn’t be told to you without putting you in a false position—involving you in responsibilities which you have no right to bear." "You puzzle me, bewilder me, Helena." "Then trust me, dear—trust me for the present at all events, and some day you shall know everything," she said; whereupon Gordon, who had not taken his eyes off her, said— "So what it really comes to is this—that whatever course your father takes to-day I must take it also, under pain of a violent separation from you! Isn’t that it, Helena? Isn’t it? And if so, isn’t it like sending a man into battle with his hands tied and his eyes blindfolded?" She dropped her head but made no reply. "That is not what I expected of you, Helena. The Helena who has been living in my mind is a girl who would say to me at a moment like this, ’Do what you believe to be right, Gordon, and whether you are degraded to the lowest rank or raised to the highest honour, I will be with you—I will stand by your side.’" Her eyes flashed and she drew herself up. "So you think I couldn’t say that—that I didn’t say anything like it when my father spoke to me? But if you have been thinking of me as a girl like that, I have been thinking of you as a man who would say, ’I love you, and do you know what my love means? It means that my love for you is above everything and everybody in the world.’" "And it is, Helena, it is." "Then why," she said, with her eyes fixed on his, "why do you let this Egyptian and his interests come between us? If you take his part after what I have just told you, will it not be the same thing in the end as choosing him against me?" "Don’t vex me, Helena. I’ve told you before that your jealousy of this man is nonsense." The word cut her to the quick, and she drew herself up again. "Very well," she said, with a new force; "if it’s jealousy and if it’s nonsense you must make your account with it. I said I _couldn’t_ tell you why I cannot leave my father—now I _won’t_. You must choose between us. It is either that man or me." "You mean that if the General decides against Ishmael Ameer you will follow your father, and that I—whatever my conscience may say—I must follow you?" Her eyes blazed and she answered, "Yes." "Good God, Helena! What is it you want me to be? Is it a man or a manikin?" At that moment the young Lieutenant who was the General’s Aide-de-camp came in to say that the Consul-General and the Prime Minister had arrived, and required Colonel Lord’s attendance. "Presently," said Gordon, and as soon as the Lieutenant had gone he turned to Helena again. "Helena," he said, "there is not a moment to lose. Remember, this is the last time I can see you before I am required to act one way or the other. God knows what may happen before I come out of that room. Will you send me into it without any choice?" She was breathing hard and biting her under lip.