If there be any circumstance that
extenuates or explains what you did, tell it to me now."
"I can not," she said, and her fair face drooped sadly away from
him.
"That I quite believe," he continued, bitterly. "You can not and
will not. You know the alternative, I suppose?"
The gentle eyes were raised to his in mute, appealing sorrow, but
she spoke not.
"Tell me now," he said, "whom it was you stole out of the house
to meet--why you met him? Be frank with me; and, if it was but
girlish nonsense, in time I may pardon you. If you refuse to
tell me, I shall leave Earlescourt, and never look upon your
false, fair face again."
She buried her face in her hands, and he heard a low moan of
sorrow come from her white lips.
"Will you tell me, Lillian?" he asked again--and he never
forgot the deadly anguish of the face turned toward him.
"I can not," she replied; her voice died away, and he thought she
was falling from her chair.
"That is your final decision; you refuse to tell me what, as your
accepted lover, I have a right to know?"
"Trust me, Lionel," she implored.
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