u; how shall I
know? Can you trust no one? There is Madame Raffoni," said Clayton.

"She knows where my office is. I have bribed her, with flattery
and a few little kindnesses, to come and tell me of you, several
times, when we have been separated in these long weeks. We have
not even gone to the 'Bavaria'; I have shown her my office. I care
not to force myself upon your loyal secrecy. I respect the promise
upon which your artistic future depends; but think of me. If you
were ill, and we were separated by Fate, I should go mad! I could
not live! Can you not trust her to bring me to you?" Fear and love
were striving now in the singer's throbbing heart.

The Magyar witch clasped her arms around her gallant lover in
a mad access of tenderness. "And you do love me so, Randall," she
cried, in a storm of tears.

"More than my life," said the man who now felt her heart beating
wildly against his own.

"Ah! God!" sobbed Irma. "If we had only met in other days, in
another land, in my own dear country!"

"Listen, Irma," pleaded Clayton. "I will soon take you away, far
over the seas."

"In a few weeks I shall be free, and you shall be my own, my very
own! For I will then come to you, free to give you all that life
and love can give.

"But promise me now that Madame Raffoni shall lead me to you if
you need me. You can trust her. I will come to her home. I cannot
bear this agony, and I am watched, also!"

Even as he spoke, the heavens blackened and a stormy drift of rain
swept athwart the sky. There was a muttering roll of thunder. The
white-crested waves dashed menacingly upon the shore!

Irma Gluyas clung to her lover as the affrighted Madame Raffoni came
rushing toward them for shelter in the storm. The red lightning
flashed, and the fury of the storm was upon them. It was a wild
tempest which raged around them. The women were helpless with
fear.

In despair, Randall Clayton gazed at the distant hotels; there was
shelter and safety. But now a new fear beset him. His well-known
identity, Irma's marked beauty, the strange attendant duenna, there
would be certain discovery and scandal. And he would be Ferris'
easy victim if discovered.

Irma Gluyas shrieked as she clung to her lover and bade him save
her as the wild lightning bolts rent the darkness. It was a horrid
elemental tumult!

A few hundred yards away a heavy closed carriage was slowly creeping
along the drive between the hotels. "Run for your life!"