ok off the hand which, in her maternal anxiety, she had laid on
his arm. Lighting a cigarette, he gave a low laugh.

"Plenty of time. There's no hurry. You're not going yet."

Anxiously, she scrutinized his face, as if trying to read his meaning.

"She's going when I go, isn't she?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"That depends--on you."

"What do you mean?"

Again he waved her to a seat.

"Sit down and I'll tell you."

Trembling, she dropped once more on to a chair and waited. He puffed
deliberately at his cigarette for a few moments and then, turning his
glance in her direction, he smiled in a peculiar, horrible way and his
eyes ran over her figure in a way that made the crimson rush furiously
to her cheek. There was no mistaking that smile. It was the bold,
lustful look of the voluptuary who enjoys letting his eyes feast on the
prey that he knows cannot now escape him.

"Mrs. Traynor," he began in the caressing, dulcet tones which she
feared more than his anger, "you are an exceptional woman. To most men
of my temperament you would not appeal. They would find your beauty
too statuesque and cold. I know you are clever, but love cannot feed
on intellect alone, I have loved many women, but never a woman just
like you. Your coldness, your haughty reserve, your refinement would
intimidate most men and keep them at a distance, but not me. Your
aloofness, your indifference only spurs me, only adds to the acuteness
of my desire. I swore to myself that I would conquer you, overcome
your resistance, bend you to my will. You turned me out of your home.
I swore to be avenged."

He stopped for a moment and watched her closely as if studying and
enjoying the effect of his words. Then, amid a cloud of blue tobacco
smoke, he went on:

"I knew only one way to win you--it was to humiliate you, to place you
in a position where you would have to come to me on your knees."

She half rose from her chair.

"I would never do that," she cried. "I would rather die!"

"Oh, yes, you will," he continued, calmly, making a gesture to her to
remain seated. "When I've told you all, you'll see things in a
different light." Fixing her steadily with his piercing black eyes, he
asked: "Have you noticed any difference in your husband since his
return."

She looked up quickly.

"Yes--what does it mean? Can you explain?"

He nodded.

"Did you ever hear your husband speak of a twin brother he once had?"

Her face tu