him for a moment with fire in her eyes.

"You need a reason. Ask your own conscience. What sort of a standard
of life yours may be I do not know, yet in your heart you know very
well that every word you have spoken to me has been a veiled insult,
every time you have come into my presence has been an outrage. That is
what stands between us, if you would know--that."

She pointed to the envelope still resting upon the mantelpiece. He
recognized the handwriting, and turned a shade paler. Her eyes noted
it mercilessly.

"But your sister," he said. "What has she told you?"

"Everything."

He was a little bewildered.

"But," he said, "you do not blame me altogether?"

She rose to her feet.

"I am tired," she said, "and I want to rest. But if you do not leave
this room I must."

He took up his hat.

"Very well," he said. "You are unjust and quixotic, Anna, you have no
right to treat any one as you are treating me. And yet--I love you.
When you send for me I shall come back. I do not believe that you will
marry David Courtlaw. I do not think that you will dare to marry
anybody else."

He left the room, and she stood motionless, with flaming cheeks,
listening to his retreating footsteps. When she was quite sure that he
was gone she took her sister's note from the mantelpiece and slowly
broke the seal.

"DEAREST A----

"I lied to you. Nigel Ennison was my very good friend, but there
is not the slightest reason for your not marrying him, if you
wish to do so.

"My husband knows all. We leave England to-night.

"Ever yours,
"ANNABEL.

Anna moved softly to the window, and threw up the sash. Ennison had
disappeared.

_Chapter XXIX_

MONTAGUE HILL PLAYS THE GAME

The man opened his eyes and looked curiously about him.

"Where am I?" he muttered.

Courtlaw, who was sitting by the bedside, bent over him.

"You are in a private room of St. Felix Hospital," he said.

"Hospital? What for? What's the matter with me?"

Courtlaw's voice sank to a whisper. A nurse was at the other end of
the room.

"There was an accident with a pistol in Miss Pellissier's room," he
said.

The light of memory flashed in the man's face. His brows drew a little
nearer together.

"Accident! She shot me," he muttered. "I had found her at last, and
she shot me. Listen, you. Am I going to die?"

"I am afraid that you are in a dangerous state," Courtlaw answered