She knew, too, that it would
be useless to seek to learn that which he had chosen to conceal; that
for no slender cause could he have come out to lead this life of whose
sufferings she could gauge the measure; that nothing save some absolute
and imperative reason could have driven him to accept such living death
as was his doom in Africa.
"Tell no one!" she echoed. "What! not Philip even? Not your oldest
friend. Ah! be sure, whatever the evidence might be against you, his
heart never condemned you for one instant."
"I believe it. Yet all you can do for me, all I implore you to do for
me, is to keep silence forever on my name. To-day, accident has made me
break a vow I never thought but to keep sacred. When you recognized me,
I could not deny myself, I could not lie to you; but, for God's sake,
tell none of what has passed between us!"
"But why?" she pursued--"why? You lie under this charge still--you
cannot disprove it, you say; but why not come out before the world, and
state to all what you swear now to me, and claim your right to bear your
father's honors? If you were falsely accused, there must have been some
guilty in your stead; and if--"
"Cease, for pity's sake! Forget I ever told you I was guiltless! Blot my
memory out; think of me as dead, as I have been, till your eyes
called me back to life. Think that I am branded with the theft of your
brother's name; think that I am vile, and shameless and fallen as the
lowest wretch that pollutes this army; think of me as what you will, but
not as innocent!"
The words broke out in a torrent from him, bearing down with them all
his self-control, as the rush of waters bears away all barriers that
have long dammed their course.
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