heart which in l

tumultuous blan

ames the dark ti

nzy o'er love's l

that shook, and eyes full of a curious mixture of anxiety and triumph. The anxiety was because she was bound upon an errand of eno

as to be this morning at twelve o'clock at the Sportswoman-tha

with pale violet. Into this she was putting a purse, a powder-puff, a wisp of old lace that was

ubtle scheme of faint half-m

hink you shall be b

I accomplish. If Osbert Gaunt proves disagreeable, I must just get a bit of lunch at the

w how much money you

dear one. I have plenty of

mall jewel drawers in her toilet table, she took out a ring-case, extracted the ring it contained, and slipped i

d Virginia, with interest. She loved pretty thin

ld not take it back. He said it would bring a curse upon

Mynors, the widow of the most-beloved, the dearest, the best, the handsomest-she was setting out gaily to fascin

licity the girl took her usually at her own value. She believed devoutly that it was at great personal

o look from the window. "Why, here is an empty fly s

little strength, especially of a morning, I felt that, on an errand like th

h a whale," she laughed. Then impetuously she flung her arms about

shabby fly with a look of disdainful fortitude, her sunshade was given her, and with a wave of the hand to the girl at the gate she started off upon her great mission. Virgie went slowly into the

down the tray, drew up the blind, and came to the bedside. Pansy lay there sm

ain all night. But I'm f

trying to keep the sorrow out of her trembling voice. She stooped, touched a handle below the bed, and with incred

ew dad," remarked Pansy, pondering. "He'll think she's

sure he mus

long pause-"suppose he

hus frankly expressed in words. She had,

owly, "but if he did, and if mother thought it was he

nded Pansy argumentatively. "She loved dad, a

e child knew nothing of the terrible state of things, and must not know unless it was inevitable. "We'll hope for the best,

*

instructed the driver to throw back the hood; and reclined, her sunshade between her delicat

s, the flashing cars, the bustle and movement of London in the season. Here, she felt, was her native element. To this she belonged-she whom a cruel fate had treated

truth about her. Had you told her that she was a monster of selfishness, that she had never loved anybody but herself, that she had jilted a poor man to marry a rich on

weapons of beauty and misfort

, as this morning, as the taxi turned out of Bond Street, slid along G

d how she had kept away so long, and admired with fervour her own S

hat morning, and the costumes in the streets, had put her somewhat out of conceit of her own appearance. The mirror, however, restored al

nt and restraint, adjusted her

the page-boy, "and I am expecting a gentleman by

feared Osbert Gaunt. She remembered that, though she did not own it to herself. Devoted slave as he had been, she had had perhaps some faint instinctive premoni

enty years ago.

her mind, she chose a small couch, with room for two to sit upon it. She brought forward a little table, put some magazines upon it, opened one and

the open air, he was also much tanned. His coal-black hair was slightly softened with grey at the temples, but his moustache was raven black, and it altered his appearance to something curiously unlike her memory of the

-possessed. The lady

tual to your appointmen

r, this interview meant everything. To him, apparently, very little. She was so much affected that she sat down at once, making a little appeal

d to discourtesy: "I came to suit my own c

brought it forward, and sat down facing her. His rudeness was s

ed; you always used to contradict.

to discuss my temperament.

is is dreadful! Dreadful! If I had expected this, I would not have appealed to

dolent of lily of the valley. In old d

s a mortgage. If you will allow me to say so, I must confess that any allus

ch and prosperous, I could understand your desire to taunt me.... I never could have believed that you wou

r, as if mocking at her gene

re," he said emphatically. "But, as regards your financial position, that is, I suppose, part of the subje

e crystal tear to lie undried upon her soft ch

gars before. This i

full at her. Her aspect of humiliation

do in this matter? I am a little puzzled, because you cannot, I think, have supposed tha

even the ashes of passion remained. He was pleased that she should be humiliated. He liked to have her at his feet. Oh, why had she not guessed that a nature like his-warped, distorted, embittered-would rejoice at seeing the woman who had injured him brought low? His foot was on her neck! She felt in

d down her resentment, resisted her impulse to give way. As his insu

ld strain a point in my favour. All that I remember of you is noble. I fancied that the fact-which I admit-t

ed me twenty years ago gives you a right to do it again. But let that pass. It is the mortgage which we must keep in mind. I think it not impossible that we may come to terms, th

ose half-shut lids, made her shudder involuntarily. So might an Inquisitor survey the victim brought bound into his pr

uld not mean to be me

e first place, a few questions are necessary. To begin. Have you a daughter bearing a remarkable resemblance to your

the incredible conversation. "Yes," she faltered at last, "that is

rginia! You named h

e stammered. "She is the deare

thy of you. I saw her in a picture-gallery not long ago. Interested by the astonishing likeness, I took pains to overhear some o

ed to my darling daughte

l which I put before you is this: If your daughter will undertake t

ve felt more outraged. Fury, resentment, a wild, combative resistance which she could not recognise as jealousy, deprived her f

at last. "Simply atrocious! What c

ld at least place the offer before her. Should she accept it, I will make you an allowance of three hundre

ed, upon a cobra about to strike. "One other," s

tsteps. Well-in the event of the acceptance of my offer, it shall be

the bewildered woman. "Am I dr

can of it. I will put it in writing, if you like. Your daughter won't find many husbands who would be willing to marry an

antage of my helplessness to torture me! You would torture Virgie! How

with a most unpleasant smile. "She will be the Andromeda, sacrificed for the rest of you-offered to the Beas

ing cadence; he had been playing with her all the time. But these words had a different ring. He was in earnest. It seemed as if the last sentence revealed to her something of his inner state

ny tide races over the St. Malo sands. In this man there was something perverted, something evil, something with which she must hold no traffic, make no barg

t to say, "shall never even kn

is pocket, glanced at it

t this offer un

d!" she cried, with a burst

d. You forget that in old times I knew you r

ous!" she expostulated. "Why sh

thing further to be said. I will take my leave. But it seems to me that you might submit the case to the judgment of Miss Mynors. Tell her that I have an estate in Derbyshire, and can settle

ad met, those two. He had seen Virginia in a picture-gallery. He, a man of past forty, wanted to marry this girl of twenty! Oh, what a f

For pity's sake be yourself, your old self, for fiv

es sound quixotic; but I will have it all legally embodied and made certain. If Miss Mynors will marry me, I

eave London to-day. I farm my own land, and we are busy at Omberleigh just now. If you decide to tell her, I will await the first post h

, pitiless. Her presence meant nothing to him. It left him utterl

d no relatives of her own, and her husband's few distant cousins had been far more frequently appealed to than her daughter knew, and were tired of h

inia," she said sullenly; "but I shall forbid

hangs upon it for you. We part, then, with at least a sporting chance o

appealing hands, outstretched in o

ion-the last throw of the dice,

t the remains of the cheque for twenty