"I have all your affection, your confidence, your trust; you have
never duped or deceived me; you have been open, truthful, and
honest with me?"
"You forget yourself, Lionel," she said, with gentle dignity;
"you should not use such words to me."
"Answer!" he returned. "You have to do with a desperate man.
Have you deceived me?"
"Never," she replied, "In thought, word, or deed."
"Merciful Heaven!" he cried. "That one can be so fair and so
false!"
There was nothing but wonder in the face that was raised to his.
"Lillian," he said, "I have loved you as the ideal of all that
was pure and noble in woman. In you I saw everything good and
holy. May Heaven pardon you that my faith has died a violent
death."
"I can not understand you," she said, slowly. "Why do you speak
to me so?"
"I will use plainer words," he replied--"so plain that you can
not mistake them. I, your betrothed husband, the man you love
and trust, ask you, Lillian Earle, who was it you met tonight in
your father's grounds?"
He saw the question strike her as lightning sometimes strikes a
fair tree.
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