The Marquis heard the note of fear in her voice and replied quickly,
“No, I am alone. Your uncle was convinced that you were hiding somewhere in England, but I had the feeling that you would come back here where you lived with your father.”
Ina did not speak and he went on,
“I tried to use my mind perceptively, as you told me to do, to find you. And now I have succeeded.”
There was silence and then at last Ina spoke.
“W-why should you – want to find me? Please – go away – I wish to be left – alone.”
“That is what I expected you to say,” the Marquis answered, “but, Ina, you cannot mean to punish me more than I have been punished already?”
He drew in his breath before he continued,
“This last month, when I thought of what I had lost, I knew that my life would be utterly empty and poi
