said, proudly. "You have yet to learn what I dare do,
Sir Everard Kingsland!"

She drew herself up in her beauty and her pride, erect and defiant.
Her long hair fell loose and unbound, her face was colorless as marble;
but her dark eyes were flashing with anger and wounded pride, and at
her brightest she had never looked more beautiful than she did now.

"So beautiful and so lost!" he said, bitterly. "So utterly deceitful
and depraved! Surely what they tell of her mother must be true. The
taint of dishonor is in the blood!"

The change was instantaneous. The pallor of her face turned to a
burning red. She clasped her hands with a sudden spasm over her heart.

"My mother!" she gasped. "What do you say of her?"

"What they say of you--that she was a false and wicked wife. Deny it
if you can."

"No," she said, with an imperial gesture of scorn, "I deny nothing. If
my husband can believe such a vile slander of his wife of a month, let
it be. I scorn to deny what he credits so easily."

"I am afraid it would tax even your invention, my lady, to deny these
very plain facts. I leave you in your room, too ill to leave it, too
ill by far to ride with me to my mother's, but not too ill to get up
and meet your lover--shall I say it, madame?--clandestinely in the
Beech Walk as soon as I am gone! You should be a little more careful,
madame, and make sure before you hold those confidential
_tete-a-tetes_, that the servants are not listening and looking on.
Lady Kingsland and Mr. Parmalee are the talk of the county already.
To-night's meeting will be a last _bonne bouche_ added to the spicy
dish of scandal."

"Have you done?" she said, whiter than ashes. "Have you any more
insults to offer?"

"Insults!" the baronet repeated, hoarse with passion. "You do well,
madame, to talk of insults--lost, fallen creature that you are! You
have dishonored an honorable name; betrayed a husband who loved and
trusted you with all his heart; blighted and ruined his life; covered
him with disgrace! And you stand there and talk of insult! I have
loved you as man never loved woman before, but God help you, Harriet
Kingsland, if I had a pistol now!"

She fell down on her knees before him.

"Kill me!" she cried. "I am here at your feet--have mercy and stab me
to the heart, but do not drive me mad with your horrible reproaches!
May God forgive me if I have brought dishonor upon you, for I never
meant it! Never--never--so hel