When he had come to her after the walk, and demanded of her whether she still intended to marry Adrian Urmand, she had answered him falsely.

'I suppose so,' she had said.
The question--such a question as it was--had been put to her too abruptly to admit of a true answer on the spur of the moment.

But the falsehood almost stuck in her throat and was a misery to her till she could set it right by a clear declaration of the truth.
She had yet to determine what she would do;--how she would tell this truth; in what way she would insure to herself the power of carrying out her purpose.

Her mind, the reader must remember, was somewhat dark in the matter.

She was betrothed to the man, and she had always heard that a betrothal was half a marriage.