nce Wardour, in spite of the coldness between you, you love
Clifford Heath. _What will you do to save him?_"

[Illustration: "Constance Wardour, you love Clifford Heath."]

"This is too much! This is horrible!" She makes a mad effort to free
herself from his grasp.

The question comes like a taunt, a declaration of her helplessness.
Coming from him, it is maddening. It restores her courage; it makes her
mistress of herself once more.

"Don't repeat that question," she says, flashing upon him a look of
defiance.

"I _do_ repeat it!" he goes on wildly. "Go to O'Meara; to whom you
please; satisfy yourself that Clifford Heath has a halter about his
neck; then come to me, and tell me if you will give yourself as his
ransom. _I can save him if I will._ I _will_ save him, only on one
condition. You know what that is."

With a sudden fierce effort she frees herself from his clasp, and stands
erect before him, fairly panting with the fierceness of her anger.

"Traitor! _monster!_ Cain! Not to save all the lives of my friends; not
to save the world from perdition, would I be your wife! _You_ would
denounce the destroyer of that worthless clay below us. _You!_ Before
that should happen, to save the world the knowledge that such a monster
exists, _I_ will tell the world where the guilt lies, _for I know_."

Before he can realize the full meaning of her words, the dressing-room
door is closed between them, and Frank Lamotte stands gnashing his
teeth, beating the air with his hands in a frenzy of rage and despair.

While he stands thus, a step comes slowly up the stairs; he turns to
meet the gaze of his father.

"Frank," says Jasper Lamotte, in low, guarded accents, "Come down to the
library at once. It is time you knew the truth."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

A LAST RESORT.

Like a man in a dream, Frank Lamotte obeys his father's call, never once
thinking that the summons is strangely worded. Over and over in his mind
the question is repeating itself--What did she mean? Was he going mad?
Was he dreaming? Had Constance Wardour really said a word that rendered
himself and all that household unsafe? If she knew who should stand in
Clifford Heath's stead, would she really spare the culprit? No; it was
impossible. Was her talk bravado? was she seeking to deceive him?

"Impossible," he reasons. "If she knew who struck that blow, then I am
ruined utterly. But she does not know--she can not."

Jasper Lamotte leads the way to t