Then I blamed myself for not acting differently, but only for a moment. We had been only a few minutes together, and even if the direst calamity befell us, I should rejoice that we had spent that blissful time together, living only in the joy of love.
"I must go back to the house now," she said, hurriedly. "I shall soon be missed, and searched for."
"No; do not go back," I said. "I can climb the wall and take you away. Let us leave now."
"It would be no use now, Jasper," she said. "I should be followed and brought back."
"There is not time to tell you now," she said; "if you were known to be here you would never escape alive. Oh, Jasper, I am beset with danger; I have almost died in my sorrow."
"What time will your absence be discovered?" I asked.
"We are supposed to attend mass at seven o'clock," she said.
I looked at my watch, it only wanted a few minutes to that time.
"Tell me how you came here, and why you are surrounded by dangers?" I asked.
"I would not marry Nick Tresidder--I could not, Jasper; you know why now. He tried to force me, and when I refused, he told me you were dead. At first I did not believe him, and then one of my old servants from Trevose came and said you had died there." She told me this in a trembling voice, as though she were frightened, told me in broken sentences, which revealed to me more than the mere words could express.
"I became distracted, and knew not what I did. I had no friend, no one to whom I could go. Then a priest came, and persuaded me to become a nun. He also brought certain papers which he wanted me to sign."
"I scarcely knew what I did. I know that I consented to come here. That was several weeks ago. Oh, Jasper, I have been in sore straits."
I set my teeth together and vowed vengeance on the Tresidder brood, and then told her to go on with her story.
"I hardly know how to tell you, Jasper. About three weeks ago a young woman died. The priests told me it was I who died; they also tell me that I am Gertrude Narcoe, and that I am to be removed to a convent in France in a day or two. I have not known what to do. Last night I could not rest, I seemed to be going mad, and after tossing for hours on my bed without sleeping I came here in the garden, and all the time my heart was crying out for you."