He at length appeared, and I proceeded alone to meet him and make known my name.

He started involuntarily and retreated a few paces from me.

After repeating my name for a few seconds, he said, "Surely you are not so unmanly as to compromise me ?" I replied, that so sensible was I of the danger of committing him, that I refused to enter his house, though we all, and particularly my female companion, sadly needed rest and shelter.

After some time, he began to pace up and down in front of his door, repeating at every turn that it was indiscreet and dishonourable to compromise him.

Among the many trials to which fate had doomed me, through hours of gloom, of peril and disaster, and even during reveries of still darker chances, which fear or fancy often evoked, I never felt a pang so keen as that which those unfeeling words sent through my heart.