"
There was a pause after this.
Honoria sank upon a block of fallen stone, bewildered, terror-
stricken, for the moment powerless to express either her fears or her
indignation, so strange, so completely inexplicable was the position in
which she found herself.
"I am in the power of a maniac," she murmured; "no one but a maniac
could be capable of this wild act. My life is in the power of a madman.
I can but wait the issue. Let me be calm. Oh, merciful heaven, give me
fortitude to face my danger quietly!"
The strength she prayed for seemed to come with the prayer.
The wild beating of her heart slackened a little. She swept the heavy
masses of hair away from her forehead, and bound the fallen plaits in a
knot at the back of her head. She did this almost as calmly as if she
had been making her toilet in her dressing-room at Raynham. Victor
Carrington watched her with surprise.
"She is a wonderful woman," he said to himself; "a noble creature. As
powerful in mind as she is lovely in person. What a pity that I should
make myself the enemy of this woman for the sake of such a mean-
spirited hound as Reginald Eversleigh! But my interests compel me to
run counter to my inclination. It is a great pity. With this woman as
my ally, I might have done greater things than I shall ever do by
myself."
Victor Carrington mused thus while Honoria Eversleigh sat on the edge
of the broken wall, at a few paces from him, looking calmly out at the
purple sky.
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