I am starting for Fort Providence."
But the other replied: "You will wait until my wife comes. You must."
There was trouble in his voice. "I must not."
Lepage braced himself for a heavy task and said: "Hume, if the time has
come to say good-bye, it has also come when we should speak together for
once openly: to settle, in so far as can be done, a long account. You
have not let my wife know who saved me. That appears from her letters.
She asks the name of my rescuer. I have not yet told her. But she will
know that to-day when I tell her all."
"When you tell her all?"
"When I tell her all."
"But you shall not do that."
"I will. It will be the beginning of the confession which I shall
afterwards make to the world."
"By Heaven you shall not do it. Do you want to wreck her life?"
Jaspar Hume's face was wrathful, and remained so till the other sank back
in the chair with his forehead in his hands; but it softened as he saw
this remorse and shame. He began to see that Lepage had not clearly
grasped the whole situation. He said in quieter but still firm tones:
"No, Lepage, that matter is between us two, and us alone.
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