t air, hummed
to himself the song Peter was singing, and then spoke with a commonplace
assurance:--

"She asked me the question."

"Electra?"

"Yes. She asked me plainly whether he married you."

"She asked you! How could she?"

"She did it without preamble. It was really rather magnificent."

"Did you answer without preamble?"

"I think so. At all events, it contented her. I said, 'yes,'--not much
more, if anything."

There was a long silence, and he felt her determination to remain
outside the issue, even to the extent of denying herself the further
news he brought. When that became apparent, he spoke again, rather
lightly:--

"She took my assurance without question. She said she should know what
to do."

"What will she do?"

"The simplest thing possible--make over Tom's money to you. She doesn't
consider, apparently, whether you are entitled to the whole of it, any
more than she had previously guessed that, if your claim were just, you
could have pushed it without her concurrence. She is a very intemperate
person."

Rose did not intend to comment on the situation, however warmly she
might express herself over Electra's personal standpoint.

"Electra did not strike me as intemperate," she said. "She seemed to me
very collected, very cold and resolute."

"Yes, but her reactions! they'd be something frightful. I can fancy that
pendulum swinging just as far the other way. They are terrifying, those
women."

"How are they terrifying?"

Governing the wild forces in herself at that minute, she felt as if all
women were terrifying when they are driven too far, and that all men
might well beware of them. MacLeod rose, and stretched himself upward in
a muscular abandon.

"Good-night, my dear," he said. "I'm going upstairs. I will see her
again to-morrow. You need give yourself no uneasiness about the outcome.
You needn't even concern yourself with the details. I shall arrange them
with her."

Rose was quickly upon her feet. She felt more his equal so than when he
towered above her at that height.

"If you see her," she threatened, "I will overturn everything."

"No, no, you wouldn't. Run upstairs now and go to bed. You are
overwrought. This whole thing has been a strain on you."

"Yes." She spoke rapidly and in a low tone, fearing grannie's window
above. "It has been a strain on me. But who brought it on? I did it
myself. I must meet it. But I will not have you meddling with it. I will
not."

"