--I beg--I implore!"

And suiting the action to the words, he dropped upon one knee before
her and extended his hands in earnest appeal to her.

"In whatever way I may deem best you will atone?" she repeated,
looking him gravely in the face. "Then make a public confession of the
fraud of which you have been guilty, and give me my freedom."

"Ah, anything but that--anything but that!" he exclaimed, flushing
consciously beneath her gaze.

She moved back a pace or two from him, her lips curling with contempt.

"Your appeal was but a wretched farce--it is worse than useless--it is
despicable," she said, with an accent that made him writhe like a
whipped cur.

"Will nothing move you?" he passionately cried.

"Nothing."

"By Heaven! then I will meet you blade to blade!" he cried, furiously,
and springing to his feet, his eyes blazing with passion. "If
entreaties will not move you--if neither bribes nor promises will
cause you to yield--we will try what lawful authority will do. I have
no intention of being made the laughing stock of the world, I assure
you; and, hereafter, I command that you conduct yourself in a manner
becoming the position which I have given you. In the first place,
then, to-morrow morning, you will breakfast in the dining-room with
the family--do you hear?"

Edith had stood calmly regarding him during this speech; but, wishing
him to go on, if he had anything further to say, she did not attempt
to reply as he paused after the above question.

"Immediately after breakfast," he resumed, with something less of
excitement, and not feeling very comfortable beneath her unwavering
glance, "we shall return to the city, and the following morning you
and I will start for St. Augustine, Florida--thence go to California
and later to Europe."

The young girl straightened herself to her full height, and she had
never seemed more lovely than at that moment.

"Monsieur Correlli," she said, in a voice that rang with an
irrevocable decision, "I shall never go to Florida with you, nor yet
to California, neither to Europe; I shall never appear anywhere with
you in public, neither will I ever break bread with you, at any table.
There, sir, you have my answer to your 'commands.' Now, let me pass."

Without waiting to see what effect her remarks might have upon him,
she pushed resolutely by him and went swiftly upstairs to her room.

The man gazed after her in undisguised astonishment.

"By St. Michael! the gi