give me a plain answer at last?"

No! He had another objection ready as the words passed her lips.

"Suppose the witnesses at the inn happen to know me?" he said. "Suppose
it comes to my father's ears in that way?"

"Suppose you drive me to my death?" she retorted, starting to her feet.
"Your father shall know the truth, in that case--I swear it!"

He rose, on his side, and drew back from her. She followed him up. There
was a clapping of hands, at the same moment, on the lawn. Somebody had
evidently made a brilliant stroke which promised to decide the game.
There was no security now that Blanche might not return again. There
was every prospect, the game being over, that Lady Lundie would be free.
Anne brought the interview to its crisis, without wasting a moment more.

"Mr. Geoffrey Delamayn," she said. "You have bargained for a private
marriage, and I have consented. Are you, or are you not, ready to marry
me on your own terms?"

"Give me a minute to think!"

"Not an instant. Once for all, is it Yes, or No?"

He couldn't say "Yes," even then. But he said what was equivalent to it.
He asked, savagely, "Where is the inn?"

She put her arm in his, and whispered, rapidly, "Pass the road on the
right that leads to the railway. Follow the path over the moor, and the