e careful!" he broke in warningly. "That is not your answer. Look at
me! Look into my eyes! Do you think you are wise in giving me such an
answer as that?"

But she would not meet his eyes. She dared not.

"Listen!" he said. "Your mother has given you to me. She will never
speak to you again, except as my promised wife. I have sworn to her that
I will make you accept me. No power on earth can take you from me.
Ernestine, listen! You are the only woman who ever resisted me, and for
that I am going to make you what I have never desired to make any woman
before,--my wife--not my servant; my queen--not my slave. I can give you
everything under the sun. You will be a princess. You will have wealth,
jewels such as you have never dreamed of, palaces, servants, honour--"

"And you!" she cried hysterically. "You!"

"Yes, and me," he said. "But you will have me in one form or another
whatever your choice. You won't get away from me. You may refuse to
marry me, but----"

"I do!" she burst out wildly. "I do!"

"But--" he said again, very deliberately.

And then, compelled by she knew not what, she lifted her eyes to his.
And all her life she shrank and shuddered at the dread memory of what
she saw.

For seconds he did not utter a single word. For seconds his eyes held
hers, arresting, piercing, devouring. She could not escape them. She was
forced to meet them, albeit with fear and loathing unutterable.

"You see!" he said at last, as though concluding an argument. "You are
mine! I can do with you exactly as I will--exactly as I will!" He
repeated the words almost in a whisper.

But at that she cried out, and began to struggle, like a bird beating
its wings against the bars of a cage.

His hold became cruel in an instant. He forced her hands behind her,
holding her imprisoned in his arms. He tilted her head back. His eyes
shone down into hers like the eyes of a tiger that clutches its prey. He
quelled her resistance by sheer brutality.

"I have warned you!" he said; and she knew instinctively that he would
have no mercy.

"How can I marry you?" she gasped in desperation. "I am engaged
to--another man!"

She saw his face change. Instantly she knew that she had made a mistake.
The ferocity in his eyes turned to devilish malice.

"You will marry me yet!" he said.

"But you will come to hate me some day!" she cried, clutching at straws.
"As--as I hate you to-day!"

His look appalled her, his lips were close to hers