She glanced towards the opened windows, and he closed them at once.

"I am afraid," he said, "that you have not been well!"

There was a touch of her old self in the hardness of her low laugh.

"It is remorse!" she declared. "I think that for once in my life I have
permitted myself to think! It is a great mistake. One loses confidence
when one realizes what a beast one is."

He waited in silence. It seemed to him the best thing. She sat down a
little wearily. He remained standing a few feet away.

"I have given you away, Lawrence," she said, quietly.

"So," he remarked, "I understand."

"Hester has told you, of course. I am not blaming her. She did quite
right. Only I should have told you myself. I wanted to be the first to
assure you of this. Our secret is quite safe. The man--with whom I made
a fool of myself--has given me his word of honour."

"Sir Leslie Borrowdean's--word of honour!" Mannering remarked, with slow
scorn. "Do you know the man, I wonder?"

"I know that he wishes to be your friend, and not your enemy," she said.

"He chooses his friends for what they are worth to him," Mannering
answered. "It is all a matter of self-interest. He has some idea of
making me the stepping-stone to his advancement. I have a place just now