I had a letter this morning which said he might have to go over to Hamburg on business, instead of coming up to us again." There was disappointment in her voice, and yet at the same time I could not fail to recognize how the man to whom she was engaged had fled from Scotland because of my presence.
How I longed to ask her point-blank what she really knew of the yachtsman who was shrouded in so much mystery.

Yet by betraying any undue anxiety I should certainly negative all my efforts to solve the puzzling enigma, therefore I was compelled to remain content with asking ingeniously disguised questions and drawing my own conclusions from her answers.
As we passed along those graveled walks it somehow became vividly impressed upon me that her marriage was being forced upon her by her parents.

Her manner was that of one who was concealing some strange and terrible secret which she feared might be revealed.

There was a distant look of unutterable terror in those dark eyes as though she existed in some constant and ever-present dread.

Of course she told me nothing of her own feelings or affections, yet I recognized in both her words and her bearing a curious apathy--a want of the real enthusiasm of affection.