"You are right, by instinct, in everything. Well, then, I shall tell you,
and you shall see at once whether it ought to be repeated, or to remain a
sacred deposit between me and the only creature I have the courage to
tell it to."
Zoe lowered her eyes, and marked the sand with her parasol. She was a
little puzzled now, and half conscious that, somehow, he was tying her to
secrecy with silk instead of rope; but she never suspected the deliberate
art and dexterity with which it was done.
Severne then made the revelation which he had been preparing for a day or
two past; and, to avoid eternal comments by the author, I must once more
call in the artful aid of the printers. The true part of Mr. Severne's
revelation is in italics; the false in ordinary type.
_"When my father died, I inherited an estate in Huntingdonshire. It was
not so large as Vizard's, but it was clear. Not a mortgage nor
incumbrance on it. I had a younger brother;_ a fellow with charming
manners, and very accomplished. These were his ruin: he got into high
society in London; _but high society is not always good society._ He
became connected with a fast lot, some of the young nobility.
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