I could not help your being frightened just now, I suppose--after all, I have carried you off from the door of your Convent, and I meant you to understand that you were helpless, and must listen.

I ought to have put it differently, but I am not clever at such things.

All I ask is that you will hear me.

After all, that is what you asked of me to-day.' He had begun to walk up and down before her, while he was speaking; but he did not come near her, for the chair stood between her and the line along which he was pacing backwards and forwards.

Something in his way of speaking reassured her, as he jerked out the rather disconnected sentences.