"Well, you know I can only marry you on one condition--that I have succeeded first in clearing my father's memory.

Now, the only man living who can clear it is Sebastian.

If Sebastian were to be shot, it could NEVER be cleared--and then, law of Medes and Persians, I could never marry you." "But how can you expect Sebastian, of all men, to clear it, Hilda ?" I cried.

"He is ready to kill us both, merely to prevent your attempting a revision; is it likely you can force him to confess his crime, still less induce him to admit it voluntarily ?" She placed her hands over her eyes and pressed them hard with a strange, prophetic air she often had about her when she gazed into the future.

"I know my man," she answered, slowly, without uncovering her eyes.