That effort having failed, there was but one honorable alternative left to him--to keep out of her society, until she was married to Oscar.

He had accepted the position in which Oscar had placed him, as the one means of reaching the end in view without exciting suspicion of the truth--and he had encountered, as his reward for the sacrifice, my ignorant protest, my stupid opposition, set as obstacles in his way! There were the motives--the pure, the noble motives--which animated him, as I know them now.

There is the right reading of the dogged language that mystified me, of the defiant manner that offended me; interpreted by the one light that I have to guide my pen--the light of later events! "Well ?" he said.

"Are we allies, or not?
Are you with me or against me ?" I gave up attempting to understand him; and answered that plain question, plainly.
"I don't deny that the consequences of undeceiving her may be serious," I said.

"But, for all that, I will have no share in the cruelty of keeping her deceived." Nugent held up his forefinger, warningly.
"Pause, and reflect, Madame Pratolungo! The mischief that you may do, as matters stand now, may be mischief that you can never repair.