erlike devotion.
'I came to speak to my own heart. I thought it would give you pleasure;
thought I could trust you utterly. I had not the slightest conception I
was imperilling my honour...!'

He stopped. Her bloodless fixed features revealed an intensity of
anguish that checked him. Only her mouth, a little open for the sharp
breath, appeared dumbly beseeching. Her large eyes met his like steel to
steel, as of one who would die fronting the weapon.

He strangled a loathsome inclination to admire.

'So good bye,' he said.

She moved her lips.

He said no more. In half a minute he was gone.

To her it was the plucking of life out of her breast.

She pressed her hands where heart had been. The pallor and cold of death
took her body.

CHAPTER XXXV. REVEALS HOW THE TRUE HEROINE OF ROMANCE COMES FINALLY TO
HER, TIME OF TRIUMPH

The shutting of her house-door closed for Dacier that woman's history in
connection with himself. He set his mind on the consequences of the act
of folly--the trusting a secret to a woman. All were possibly not so
bad: none should be trusted.

The air of the street fanned him agreeably as he revolved the horrible
project of confession to the man who had put faith in him. Particulars
might be asked. She would be unnamed, but an imagination of the effect
of naming her placarded a notorious woman in fresh paint: two members of
the same family her victims!

And last night, no later than last night, he had swung round at
this very corner of the street to give her the fullest proof of his
affection. He beheld a dupe trotting into a carefully-laid pitfall.
She had him by the generosity of his confidence in her. Moreover, the
recollection of her recent feeble phrasing, when she stood convicted
of the treachery, when a really clever woman would have developed her
resources, led him to doubt her being so finely gifted. She was just
clever enough to hoodwink. He attributed the dupery to a trick of
imposing the idea of her virtue upon men. Attracted by her good looks
and sparkle, they entered the circle of her charm, became delightfully
intimate, suffered a rebuff, and were from that time prepared to serve
her purpose. How many other wretched dupes had she dangling? He spied at
Westlake, spied at Redworth, at old Lord Larrian, at Lord Dannisburgh,
at Arthur Rhodes, dozens. Old and young were alike to her if she saw
an end to be gained by keeping them hooked. Tonans too, and Whitmonby.
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