ng, most regal lady?"

"Not back to the home I left for the sake of a gambler and _roue_,"
she said, bitterly.

"Oh," thought he, "she has just got her ideas awakened on this
subject: believed me the soul of honor, and all that. Only a small
matter this, after all."

"Don't call hard names, little woman," he said aloud. "I'm not such a
very bad man, after all. By the way, I shouldn't have thought it
exactly in your line, to order up my servant for examination in my
absence."

"I am not indebted to your servant for my knowledge concerning you,
sir. I wish to leave this place; stand aside and let me pass."

The red flush had returned to her cheeks, the dangerous sparkle to her
eyes; her courage and spirits rose in response to his sneering
pleasantries. Her nerves were tempered like steel. He little dreamed
of the courage, strength and power she could pit against him.

He dropped one hand carelessly, and inserted it jauntily in his
pocket.

"Zounds; but you look like a little tigress," he exclaimed,
admiringly. "Really, rage becomes you vastly, but it's wearisome,
after all, my dear. So drop high tragedy, like a sensible girl, and
tell me what is the meaning of this new freak."

"I will tell you this, sir: I shall leave this place now, and I wish
never to see your face again. Where I go is no concern of yours. Why I
go, I leave to your own imagination."

"Bravo; what a little actress you would make! But now for a display of
my histrionic talents. Leave this place, against my will, you can not;
and I wish to see your face often, for many days to come. Where you go
I must go, too; and why you go, is because of a prudish scruple that
has no place in the world you and I will live in."

"The world _you_ live in is not large enough for me too, Lucian
Davlin. And you and I part, now and forever."

"Not so fast, little one," he answered, in his softest, most
persuasive tone. "See, I am the same lover you pledged yourself to
only yesterday. I adore you the same as then; I desire to make you
happy just the same. You have put a deep gulf between yourself and
your home; you can not go back; you would go out from here to meet a
worse fate, to fall into worse hands. Come, dear, put off that frown."

He made a gesture as if to draw her to him. She sprang away, and
placing herself at a distance, looked at him over a broad, low-backed
chair, saying:

"Not a step nearer me, sir, and not another word of your sophistry. I
wi