"So far from that," said he, rising, "I distinctly tell you that I place all, even my honor, at your feet, and without one shadow of a condition. You say you came here to ask me a favor, and my answer is that I accord whatever you ask, and make no favor of it. Now, what is it you wish me to do?"
"It's very hard not to believe you sincere when you speak in this way," said she, in a low voice.
"Don't try," said he, in the same low tone.
"You promise me, then, that nothing shall come of this?"
"And that you will make any amends the Commodore's friend may suggest? Come, come," said she, laughing, "I never meant that you were to marry the young lady."
"I really don't know how far you were going to put my devotion to the test."
The pleasantness with which he spoke this so amused her that she broke again into laughter, and laughed heartily too. "Confess," said she at last,--"confess it's the only scrape you did not see your way out of!"
"I am ready to confess it's the only occasion in my life in which I had to place my honor in the hands of a lady."
"Well, let us see if a lady cannot be as adroit as a gentleman in such an affair; and now, as you are in my hands, Mr. Maitland,--completely in _my_ hands,--I am peremptory, and my first orders are that you keep close arrest. Raikes will see that you are duly fed, and that you have your letters and the newspapers; but mind, on any account, no visitors without my express leave: do you hear me, sir?"
"I do; and all I would say is this, that if the tables should ever turn, and it would be my place to impose conditions, take my word for it, I 'll be just as absolute. Do you hear me, madam?"
"I do; and I don't understand, and I don't want to understand you," said she, in some confusion. "Now, good-bye. It is almost day. I declare that gray streak there is daybreak!"
"On, Alice, if you would let me say one word--only one--before we part."
"I will not, Mr. Maitland, and for this reason, that I intend we should meet again."
"Be it so," said he, sadly, and turned away. After he had walked a few paces, he stopped and turned round; but she was already gone, how and in what direction he knew not. He hurried first one way, then another, but without success. If she had passed into the house,--and, of course, she had,--with what speed she must have gone! Thoughtful, but not unhappy, he returned to his room, if not fully assured that he had done what was wisest, well disposed to hope favorably for the future.