friend would take the short way back through the wood, and well aware
that his own life might pay the penalty if he succeeded in warning
Arthur. After the terrible discovery of the murder (committed on the
high road), and the escape of the miscreant who had been guilty of the
crime, the parting of Lord Harry and Miss Henley had been the next
event. She had left him, on her return to England, and had refused to
consent to any of the future meetings between them which he besought
her to grant.


At this stage in the narrative, Mountjoy felt compelled to ask
questions more searching than he had put to Iris yet. It was possible
that she might be trusting her own impressions of Lord Harry, with the
ill-placed confidence of a woman innocently self-deceived.

"Did he submit willingly to your leaving him?" Mountjoy said.

"Not at first," she replied.

"Has he released you from that rash engagement, of some years since,
which pledged you to marry him?"

"No."

"Did he allude to the engagement, on this occasion?"

"He said he held to it as the one hope of his life."

"And what did you say?"