"
"You killed a defenceless man!" Her voice was sharp with agony. "That
was mentioned at the trial--but I did not believe it then--in that long
ago." She trembled to her feet from the bench where she was sitting.
"And I do not believe it now--no, on my soul, I do not."
"But it makes no difference, you see. I was condemned for killing your
father, and the world knows that Erris Boyne was your father, and here
Lord Mallow, the governor, knows it; and there is no chance of friendship
between you and me. Since the day he was found dead in the room, there
was no hope for our friendship, for anything at all between us that I had
wished to be there. You dare not be friends with me--"
Her face suddenly suffused and she held herself upright with an effort.
She was about to say, "I dare, Dyck--I do dare!" but he stopped her with
a reproving gesture.
"No, no, you dare not, and I would not let you if you would. I am an
ex-convict. They say I killed your father, and the way to understanding
between us is closed."
She made a protesting gesture. "Closed! Closed!--But is it closed? No,
no, some one else killed him, not you.
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