I may trust at least to your
silence?"
"My word as a gentleman is sufficient?"
"It is."
"Consider me pledged to silence as I have been for a quarter of a
century."
"Where is Themar?"
"He is here at my command to-night after an illness of weeks. He has
been Granberry's prisoner. His illness alone won his release for him
through some inconsistent whim of sympathy on the part of Granberry.
He wears the garb of a gray monk."
"Send him here."
The Baron bowed and withdrew. At the path he turned.
"Ronador," he said quietly, "for the sake of the lifetime friendship I
have borne your father, for the sake of the position of honor and trust
I hold in your father's court, for the sake of my great love for
Houdania, let me say that when you find you are sinking deeper and
deeper into a pitfall of errors and unhappiness and treachery, I shall
be ready and willing to aid and advise you as best I may. I think I
know you better than you know yourself. You have an inheritance of
wild passion, a nature that swayed by irresistible and fiery impulse,
will for the moment dare anything and regret it with terrible suffering
ever after. One such lesson you have had in early manhood. I hope you
may not rush on blindly to another.
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