I were a traitor were I now to place myself in peril." She pressed against him, her face so close to his that her breath fanned his cheek, whither a faint colour crept in quick response.

Despite herself almost, instinctively, unconsciously, she exerted the weapons of her sex to bend him to her will.
"You say you love me," she whispered.

"Prove it me now, and I will believe you.
"Ah!" he sighed.

"And believing me?
What then ?" He had himself grimly in hand, yet feared he should not prove strong enough to hold himself for long.
"You.., you shall find me your...

dutiful wife," she faltered, crimsoning.
His arms tightened about her; he crushed her to him, he bent his head to hers and his lips burnt the lips she yielded to him as though they had been living fire.
Anon, she was to weep in shame--in shame and in astonishment--at that instant of surrender, but for the moment she had no thought save for her brother.