“Do you know,” she asked, “to whom you are speaking?”

“Not to Mr. Northmour’s wife?” I asked, by way of answer.

She shook her head.  All this while she was studying my face with an embarrassing intentness.  Then she broke out—­

“You have an honest face.  Be honest like your face, sir, and tell me what you want and what you are afraid of.  Do you think I could hurt you?  I believe you have far more power to injure me!  And yet you do not look unkind.  What do you mean—­you, a gentleman—­by skulking like a spy about this desolate place?  Tell me,” she said, “who is it you hate?”

“I hate no one,” I answered; “and I fear no one face to face.  My name is Cassilis—­Frank Cassilis.  I lead the life of a vagabond for my own good pleasure.  I am one of Northmour’s oldest friends; and three nights ago, when I addressed him on these links, he stabbed me in the shoulder with a knife.”

“It was you!” she said.

“Why he did so,” I continued, disregarding the interruption, “is more than I can guess, and more than I care to know.  I have not many friends, nor am I very susceptible to friendship; but no man shall drive me from a place by terror.  I had camped in the Graden Sea-Wood ere he came; I camp in it still.  If you think I mean harm to you or yours, madame, the remedy is in your hand.  Tell him that my camp is in the Hemlock Den, and to-night he can stab me in safety while I sleep.”

With this I doffed my cap to her, and scrambled up once more among the sand hills.  I do not know why, but I felt a prodigious sense of injustice, and felt like a hero and a martyr; while as a matter of fact, I had not a word to say in my defense, nor so much as one plausible reason to offer for my conduct.  I had stayed at Graden out of a curiosity natural enough, but undignified; and though there was another motive growing in along with the first, it was not one which, at that period, I could have properly explained to the lady of my heart.

Certainly, that night, I thought of no one else; and, though her whole conduct and position seemed suspicious, I could not find it in my heart to entertain a doubt of her integrity.  I could have staked my life that she was clear of blame, and, though all was dark at the present, that the explanation of the mystery would show her part in these events to be both right and needful.  It was true, let me cudgel my imagination as I pleased, that I could invent no theory of her relations to Northmour; but I felt none the less sure of my conclusion because it was founded on instinct in place of reason, and, as I may say, went to sleep that night with the thought of her under my pillow.

Next day she came out about the same hour alone, and, as soon as the sand hills concealed her from the pavilion, drew nearer to the edge, and called me by name in guarded tones.  I was astonished to observe that she was deadly pale, and seemingly under the influence of strong emotion.