She seemed dead with fear- yes, she was under his
compulsion. I will seek her; I will find her; now that he is away, she
will speak her true mind. She will remember the old times when we were
little playfellows together, and this will soften her heart, and she
will no more betray me, but will confess me. There is no treacherous
blood in her- no, she was always honest and true. She has loved me
in those old days- this is my security; for whom one has loved, one
cannot betray.'
He stepped eagerly toward the door; at that moment it opened,
and the Lady Edith entered. She was very pale, but she walked with a
firm step, and her carriage was full of grace and gentle dignity.
Her face was as sad as before.
Miles sprang forward, with a happy confidence, to meet her, but
she checked him with a hardly perceptible gesture, and he stopped
where he was. She seated herself, and asked him to do likewise. Thus
simply did she take the sense of old-comradeship out of him, and
transform him into a stranger and a guest. The surprise of it, the
bewildering unexpectedness of it, made him begin to question, for a
moment, if he was the person he was pretending to be, after all. The
Lady Edith said:
'Sir, I have come to warn you. The mad cannot be persuaded out
of their delusions, perchance; but doubtless they may be persuaded
to avoid perils. I think this dream of yours hath the seeming of
honest truth to you, and therefore is not criminal- but do not tarry
here with it; for here it is dangerous.
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