as you do not know it, but God help you should anyone tell it to you, for it would embitter your life."
"My life being so very sweet now," answered Madge, with a light sneer. "You are trying to put out a fire by pouring oil on it, and what you say only makes me more determined to find out what it is."
"Madge, I implore you not to persist in this foolish curiosity," he said, almost fiercely, "It will only bring you misery."
"If it concerns me I have a right to know it," she answered curtly. "When I marry you how can we be happy together, with the shadow of a secret between us?"
Brian rose, and leaned against the verandah post, with a dark frown on his face.
"Do you remember that verse of Browning's," he said, coolly—
"Where the apple reddens
Never pry,
Lest we lose our Edens,
Eve and I."
Singularly applicable to our present conversation, I think."
"Ah," she said, her pale face flushing with anger, "you want me to live in a fool's paradise, which may end at any moment."
"That depends upon yourself," he answered coldly. "I never roused your curiosity by telling you that there was a secret, but betrayed it inadvertendly to Calton's cross-questioning. I tell you candidly that I did learn something from Rosanna Moore, and it concerns you, but only indirectly through a third person. But it would do no good to reveal it, and would ruin both our lives."
She did not answer, but looked straight before her into the glowing sunshine.
Brian fell on his knees beside her, and stretched out his hands with an entreating gesture.
"Oh my darling," he cried sadly, "cannot you trust me? The love which has stood such a test as yours cannot fail like this. Let me bear the misery of knowing it alone, without blighting your young life with the knowledge of it. I would tell you if I could, but, God help me, I cannot—I cannot," and he buried his face in his hands.
