"I will sit beside you and tell you everything you wish to know, on
condition that you stop berating yourself in a manner that fills me
with indignation," replied Herbert, as they went to a distant part
of the dusty enclosure and took their seats upon a rude bench.
"Oh, Herbert, bear with me; I could dash my wild, impatient head
against a stone wall!"
"That would not be likely to clear or strengthen your brains," said
Herbert, who thereupon commenced and told Traverse the whole history
of the persecution of Clara Day at the Hidden House; the
interception of her letters; the attempt made to force her into a
marriage with Craven Le Noir; her deliverance from her enemies by
the address and courage of Capitola; her flight to Staunton and
refuge with Mrs. Rocke; her appeal to the court, and finally her
success and her settlement under the charge of her matronly friend
at Willow Heights.
Traverse had not listened patiently to this account. He heard it
with many bursts of irrepressible indignation and many involuntary
starts of wild passion. Toward the last he sprang up and walked up
and down, chafing like an angry lion in his cage.
"And this man," he exclaimed, as Herbert concluded; "this demon!
this beast! is now our commanding officer--the colonel of our
regiment."
"Yes," replied Herbert, "but as such you must not call him names;
military rules are despotic; and this man, who knows your person and
knows you to be the betrothed of Clara Day, whose hand and fortune
he covets for his son? will leave no power with which his command
invests him untried to ruin and destroy you! Traverse, I say these
things to you that being 'forewarned' you may be 'forearmed.
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