It seemed too monstrous and absurd that Camilla should
have betrothed herself to this forbidding, ugly, ageing, and terrible
man.
'You were engaged? Never! Perhaps you aren't aware that she was engaged
to Tudor?'
'I tell you we were engaged.'
'She accepted you?'
'Why not? I meant well by the girl.'
'And then she disappeared?'
Hugo spoke with a certain cynicism.
'How do you know?' Ravengar demanded angrily.
'I only guess.'
'Well, she did. I can't imagine why. I meant well by her. And the next
thing is, I find her working in your shop, and in the arms of that
scoundrel, Tudor.' He hesitated, and then, as he proceeded, his tones
softened to an appeal. 'Owen, why were you watching last night? I must
know. It's an affair of life or death to me.'
Hugo did not believe most of Ravengar's story, and he perceived the
difficulty of his own position and the necessity for caution.
'I was watching because Miss Payne thought herself in some mysterious
danger,' he said.
'She came to me, as you have done, to ask my help. And I won't hide from
you that it was she herself who informed me definitely that Tudor had
invited her to marry him, and that she had consented.'
'She shall not marry him!' cried Ravengar, exasperated.
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