minute or two, silent, and then he
returned to his chair.

"You will say I am unjust again. But unless I am incapable of
understanding English--such English as he speaks--this is his ultimatum:
that unless I give my property, every cent of it, over to the Society, I
am to go to America. It is a distinct and positive threat."

"How can you say so!" the other remonstrated. "He has just been to
America himself, without any compulsion whatever."

"He has been to America for a certain number of weeks. I am to go for
life--and, as he imagines, alone."

His face had been growing darker and darker, the brows lowering
ominously over the eyes.

"Now, Brand," his friend said, "you are letting your distrust of this
man Lind become a madness. What if he were to say to-morrow that you
might marry Natalie the day after?"

The other looked up almost bewildered.

"I would say he was serving some purpose of his own. But he will not say
that. He means to keep his daughter to himself, and he means to have my
money."

"Why, you admitted, a minute ago, that even you could not suspect him of
that!"

"Not for himself--no. Probably he does not care for money. But he cares
for ambition--for power; and there is a vacancy in the Council. Don't
you see? This would be a tremendous large sum in the eyes of a lot of
foreigners: they would be grateful, would they not? And Natalie once
transferred to Italy, I could console myself with the honor and dignity
of Lind's chair in Lisle Street. Don't you perceive?"

"I perceive this--that you misjudge Lind altogether. I am sure of it. I
have seen it from the beginning--from the moment you set your foot in
his house. And you tried to blind yourself to the fact because of
Natalie. Now that you imagine that he means to take Natalie from you,
all your pent-up antagonism breaks loose. Meanwhile, what does Natalie
herself say?"

"What does she say?" he repeated, mechanically. He also was lying back
in his chair, his eyes gazing aimlessly at the window. But whenever
anyone spoke of Natalie, or whenever he himself had to speak of her, a
quite new expression came into his face; the brows lifted, the eyes were
gentle. "What does she say? Why, nothing. Lind requested me neither to
see her nor write to her; and I thought that reasonable until I should
have heard what he had to say to me. There is a message I got half an
hour ago--not from her."

He handed to Lord Evelyn the anonymous scroll that he had re