"Florence, do not leave me like this," he pleads in an impassioned tone. "You are laboring under a delusion. Awake from this dream, I implore you, and see things as they really are."
"I am awake, and I do see things as they are," she replies sadly.
"My darling, who can have poisoned your mind against me?" he asks, in deep agitation.
At this moment, as if in answer to his question, the door leading into the conservatory at the other side of the room is pushed open, and Dora Talbot enters.
"Ah, here is Mrs. Talbot," exclaims Sir Adrian eagerly; "she will exonerate me!"
He speaks with such full assurance of being able to bring Dora forward as a witness in his defense that Florence, for the first time, feels a strong doubt thrown upon the belief she has formed of his being a monster of fickleness.
"What is it I can do for you?" asks Dora, in some confusion. Of late she has grown very shy of being alone with either him or Florence.
"You will tell Miss Delmaine," replies Adrian quickly, "that I never wrote you a letter, and that I certainly did not--you will forgive my even mentioning this extraordinary supposition, I hope, Mrs. Talbot--kiss your hand one day in September in the lime-walk."
Dora turns first hot and then cold, first crimson and then deadly pale. So it is all out now, and she is on her trial. She feels like the veriest criminal brought to the bar of justice. Shall she promptly deny everything, or--No. She has had enough of deceit and intrigue. Whatever it costs her, she will now be brave and true, and confess all.
"I do tell her so," she says, in a low tone, but yet firmly. "I never received a letter from you, and you never kissed my hand."
"Dora!" cries Florence. "What are you saying! Have you forgotten all that is past?"
"Spare me!" entreats Dora hoarsely. "In an hour, if you will come to my room, I will explain all, and you can then spurn me, and put me outside the pale of your friendship if you will, and as I well deserve. But, for the present, accept my assurance that no love passages ever occurred between me and Sir Adrian, and that I am fully persuaded his heart has been given to you alone ever since your first meeting."
"Florence, you believe her?" questions Sir Adrian beseechingly. "It is all true what she has said. I love you devotedly. If you will not marry me, no other woman shall ever be my wife. My beloved, take pity on me!"