hurried opening and shutting of the library
door again.

Then there came swift steps over the stairs.

Edith knew that Emil Correlli was coming to ascertain if she were safe
within her room; that he feared if Giulia had succeeded in gaining an
entrance there, without being discovered, she might possibly have
escaped in the same way.

She moved noiselessly across the room toward the dressing-case and
opened a drawer, just as there came a knock on her door.

"Is that you, Mrs. Goddard?" Edith questioned, in her usual tone of
voice, though her heart was beating with great, frightened throbs.

"No; it is I," responded Emil Correlli. "I wish to speak with you a
moment, Edith."

"You must excuse me just now, Mr. Correlli," the girl replied, as she
rattled the stopper to one of the perfumery bottles on the
dressing-case; "I am dressing, and cannot see any one just at
present."

"Oh!" returned the voice from without, in a modified tone, as if the
man were intensely relieved by her reply. "I beg your pardon; but when
can I see you--how long will it take you to finish dressing?"

Edith glanced at the clock, and a little smile of triumph curled her
lips, for she saw that the hands pointed to half-past two.

"Not more than fifteen or twenty minutes, perhaps," she returned.

"Ah, you are relenting!" said the man, eagerly. "You will come down by
and by--you will dine with us this evening, Edith?" he concluded, in
an appealing tone.

There was again a moment of hesitation on Edith's part, as if she were
debating the question with herself; but if he could have seen her
eyes, he would have been appalled by the look of fire and loathing
that blazed in them.

"Mr. Correlli," she said at last, in a tone which he interpreted as
one of timid concession, "I--I wish to do what is right and--I think
perhaps I will come down as soon as I finish dressing."

His face lighted and flushed with triumph.

He believed that she was yielding--won over by the munificent gifts
with which he had crowded her room.

"Ah! thank you! thank you!" he responded, with delight. "But take your
own time, dear, and make yourself just as beautiful as possible, and I
will come up for you in the course of half an hour."

He flattered himself that he would be well rid of Giulia by that time;
and having assured himself that Edith was safe in her room, and, as he
believed, gradually submitting to his terms, he retraced his steps
downstairs, the cruel lin