to do with as he
pleased--he gave me the choice of--of--marrying to suit him or being cut
off entirely. I--I--refused to accept the man he had selected for me.
That ended the matter. 'Then from this hour know that you shall not
inherit one penny of my wealth,' he cried. 'I will cut you off with but
the small amount required by law. There is nothing more to be said. You
are a Fairfax. You have taken your choice, and as a Fairfax you must
abide by your decision!' You will remember I told you I had something to
tell you the moment you came up to me at the arched gate, but you would
not listen. Now the consequence is upon your own head."

"I have married a beggar, when I thought I was marrying an--heiress!" he
cried in a rage so horrible that Faynie, brave as she was, recoiled from
him in terror and, dismay.

"You have married a penniless young girl," she corrected, half
inaudibly.

He raised his clinched hand with a terrible volley of oaths, before
which she quailed, despite her bravery.

"When the old man cast you off you thought you would tie yourself on to
me," he cried. "You women are cunning--oh, yes, you are, don't tell me
you're not; and you are the shrewdest one I've come across yet. You lie
when you say you meant to tell me what had happened beforehand, and you
know it. But you'll find out at your cost what it means to bind me to a
millstone for a wife. But you shan't be a millstone. You'll do your
share toward the support. Yes, by George, you shall. I'll put you on the
stage--and you--"

"Never!" cried the girl with a bitter sob. "I'd die first."

"Don't set up your authority against mine," he cried, and as he uttered
the words--half crazed by the brandy he had drunk so copiously--his
clinched fist came down with a heavy blow upon the girl's beautiful,
upturned face, and she fell like one dead at his feet.

CHAPTER VIII.

WHAT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT ON THE LONELY RIVER ROAD.

For one moment he looked down half stupefied at his work--the girl lay
in a little dark heap at his feet just as he had struck her down--the
crimson blood pouring from a wound on her temple which his ring had
caused.

"I--I've killed her," he muttered, setting his teeth together
hard--"she--she provoked me to it--curse her! My God! the girl is
actually dying." Then, through his half-dazed brain came the thought
that his crime would soon be discovered, and his only safety lay in
instant flight.

It was but the work of a m