"I'll forgive you for talking nonsense, Mr. Linwood," she said;"and I will even permit you to come and see me again, on one condition--that you tell the whole truth about the duel. If you conceal the smallest circumstance, our acquaintance is at an end.""Haven't I owned everything already?" Percy inquired, in great perplexity. "Did I say No, when you told me I was the man?""Could you say No, with that plaster on your neck?" was the ready rejoinder. "I am determined to know more than the newspaper tells me. Will you declare, on your word of honor, that Captain Bervie had nothing to do with the duel? Can you look me in the face, and say that the real cause of the quarrel was a disagreement at cards? When you were talking with me just before I left the ball, how did you answer a gentleman who asked you to make one at the whist-table? You said, 'I don't play at cards.' Ah! You thought Ihad forgotten that? Don't kiss my hand! Trust me with the whole truth, or say good-by forever.""Only tell me what you wish to know, Miss Charlotte," said Percy humbly. "If you will put the questions, I will give the answers--as well as I can."On this understanding, Percy's evidence was extracted from him as follows:
