to us both. Why have you betrayed me?"

"Betrayed you, Lulu--Good God! what do you mean?"

She looked him full in the eye, and then said slowly, "Do you mean to
say that you have told no one of our meetings?"

"Only one--my old friend Blandford, who lives--Ah, yes! I see it now.
You are neighbors. He has betrayed me. This house is--"

"My father's!" she replied boldly.

The momentary uneasiness passed from Demorest's resolute face. His old
self-sufficiency returned. "Good," he said, with a frank laugh, "that
will do for me. Open the door there, Lulu, and take me to him. I'm not
ashamed of anything I've done, my girl, nor need you be. I'll tell him
my real name is Dick Demorest, as I ought to have told you before, and
that I want to marry you, fairly and squarely, and let him make the
conditions. I'm not a vagabond nor a thief, Lulu, if I have met you on
the sly. Come, dear, let us end this now. Come--"

But she had thrown herself before him and placed her hand upon his lips.
"Hush! are you mad? Listen to me, I tell you--please--oh, do--no you
must not!" He had covered her hand with kisses and was drawing her face
towards his own. "No--not again, it was wrong then, it is monstrous now.
I implore you, listen, if you love me, stop."

He released her. She sank into a chair by the kitchen-table, and buried
her flushed face in her hands.