Her violet pupils dilated, trembled, and then quickly shifted as she suddenly stiffened into an attitude of scornful indifference, almost grotesque in its unreality.

His eyes slowly turned to the window, the door, the candles on the table and the chair before it, and then came back to her face again.

Then he drew a deep breath.
"I give no heed to the idle gossip of servants, Susy," he said slowly.
"I have no belief that you have ever contemplated anything worse than an act of girlish folly, or the gratification of a passing caprice.

Neither do I want to appeal to you or frighten you, but I must tell you now, that I know certain facts that might make such a simple act of folly monstrous, inconceivable in YOU, and almost accessory to a crime! I can tell you no more.

But so satisfied am I of such a possibility, that I shall not scruple to take any means--the strongest--to prevent even the remotest chance of it.