He had turned very pale, and I laid my hand on his arm, while he looked at me as if he wished to wrest my secret out of my eyes. My secret, I call it, by courtesy; God knows I had come terribly near telling it. God will forgive me, but Eunice probably will not. Had I broken my vow, or had I kept it? I asked myself this, and the answer, so far as I read it in Mr. Frank's eyes, was not reassuring. I dreaded his next question; but when it came it was not what I had expected. Something violent took place in his own mind—something I could n't follow.
"If I do what you ask me, what will be my reward?"
"You will make me very happy."
"And what shall I make your cousin?—God help us!"
"Less wretched than she is to-day."
"Is she 'wretched'?" he asked, frowning as he did before—a most distressing change in his fair countenance.
"Ah, when I think that I have to tell you that—that you have never noticed it—I despair!" I exclaimed with a laugh.
I had laid my hand on his arm, and he placed his right hand upon it, holding it there. He kept it a moment in his grasp, and then he said, "Don't despair!"
"Promise me to wait," I answered. "Everything is in your waiting."
"I promise you!" After which he asked me to
