.
"Isn't that the anchorage of the Atlantic Yacht Club?"

"Yes," he answered impatiently.

"Then that's Mr. Bivens's yacht--the big, ugly black one lying close
inshore with steam up. He told me he would send her into dry dock
to-day. He was talking last night of a wedding cruise in her to the
Mediterranean. I confess, Jim, that I want to shine, to succeed, and
dazzle, and reign. Every ambitious man has this desire. Why shouldn't
I? You say I have rare beauty. Well, I wish to express myself. It's a
question of common sense. Marriage is my only career. This man's
conquest was so easy it startled me and I came down out of the clouds.
I don't know a girl in New York to-day who has youth and beauty who
does not in her soul of souls aspire to the highest rank and the
greatest wealth. This is perhaps the one chance of my life----"

"Do you hold yourself so cheap?"

"You see I'm not so prejudiced an observer as you, Jim. I've looked the
facts squarely in the face. You can't realize how much the power of
millions means to a woman who chafes at the limitations the world puts
on her sex. My imagination has been set on fire by dreams of splendour
and power. It's too late----"

"Don't, don't say it, Nan!"

"Why not be frank? This little cottage is a gem, I admit. But I've seen
a splendid palace set in flowers and gleaming with subdued light. Soft
music steals through its halls mingled with the laughter of throngs who
love and admire me. Its banquet tables are laden with the costliest
delicacies, while liveried servants hurry to and fro with plates and
goblets of gold! And all this wild dream, Jim, seems real, a part of my
very life. Perhaps somewhere in another world my spirit lived in such
surroundings----"

"Perhaps," Stuart interrupted bitterly, "in the breast of a cruel,
merciless half-savage princess who killed her lover to win a
throne----"

Nan suddenly grasped his arm.

"What are you saying!"

"Only interpreting your dream."

"You mustn't say horrible things like that to me. It's bad enough, God
knows, when I face it. But at least I'm not a murderess."

"I'm not at all sure," he persisted, with desperation. "That a girl who
can deliberately kill the soul of the man who loves her, might not kill
his body if put to the test----"

"For heaven's sake, Jim, if you do love me don't say such things! I'll
never forget them! I can't help it--I've got to do this. The spell is
on me, and I must----"

Stuart seized h