Perhaps I could accomplish little in her defense, but I intended to be free to do that little.

Whatever fate might be in store for us, that sneering, olive-hued devil should receive his deserts if ever he attempted wrong to her.

That had become the one purpose of my heart, for I realized here skulked the real danger, the deeper peril of our situation.
I may have remained there for a quarter of an hour, motionless, thinking over every incident, and reviewing carefully, and in detail, the various happenings which had led to our present condition.

The only result was to enlist me yet more strongly to her service.
Believing her statement I could see nothing in her conduct to criticize, and she appealed to me in all womanhood.

I would be a dastard to doubt, or desert, her cause now, and the warm blood throbbed in my veins responsive to the memory of what had already been between us.