d Susie.

'Do you think anything she can do has the power to make me love her less?
There must be reasons of which we know nothing that caused her to do all
she has done. I daresay it was inevitable from the beginning.'

Dr Porhoet got up and walked across the room.

'If a woman had done me such an injury that I wanted to take some
horrible vengeance, I think I could devise nothing more subtly cruel than
to let her be married to Oliver Haddo.'

'Ah, poor thing, poor thing!' said Arthur. 'If I could only suppose she
would be happy! The future terrifies me.'

'I wonder if she knew that Haddo had sent that telegram,' said Susie.

'What can it matter?'

She turned to Arthur gravely.

'Do you remember that day, in this studio, when he kicked Margaret's
dog, and you thrashed him? Well, afterwards, when he thought no one saw
him, I happened to catch sight of his face. I never saw in my life such
malignant hatred. It was the face of a fiend of wickedness. And when
he tried to excuse himself, there was a cruel gleam in his eyes which
terrified me. I warned you; I told you that he had made up his mind to
revenge himself, but you laughed at me. And then he seemed to go out of
our lives and I thought no more about it. I wonder why he sent Dr Porhoet
here today. He must have known that the doctor would hear of his
humiliation, and he may have wished that he should be present at his
triumph. I think that very moment he made up his mind to be even with
you, and he devised this odious scheme.'

'How could he know that it was possible to carry out such a horrible
thing?' said Arthur.

'I wonder if Miss Boyd is right,' murmured the doctor. 'After all, if
you come to think of it, he must have thought that he couldn't hurt
you more. The whole thing is fiendish. He took away from you all your
happiness. He must have known that you wanted nothing in the world more
than to make Margaret your wife, and he has not only prevented that, but
he has married her himself. And he can only have done it by poisoning
her mind, by warping her very character. Her soul must be horribly
besmirched; he must have entirely changed her personality.'

'Ah, I feel that,' cried Arthur. 'If Margaret has broken her word to me,
if she's gone to him so callously, it's because it's not the Margaret I
know. Some devil must have taken possession of her body.'

'You use a figure of speech. I wonder if it can possibly be a reality.'

Arthur and Dr Porhoet loo