ice: "If you'll go now, I will send you something next week."

But Wyant did not respond as readily as she had expected. He merely
asked, without altering his insolently easy attitude: "How much? Unless
it's a good deal, I prefer the letter."

Oh, why could she not cry out: "Leave the house at once--your vulgar
threats are nothing to me"--Why could she not even say in her own heart:
_I will tell my husband tonight?_

"You're afraid," said Wyant, as if answering her thought. "What's the
use of being afraid when you can make yourself comfortable so easily?
You called me a systematic blackmailer--well, I'm not that yet. Give me
a thousand and you'll see the last of me--on what used to be my honour."

Justine's heart sank. She had reached the point of being ready to appeal
again to Amherst--but on what pretext could she ask for such a sum?

In a lifeless voice she said: "I could not possibly get more than one or
two hundred."

Wyant scrutinized her a moment: her despair must have rung true to him.
"Well, you must have something of your own--I saw your jewelry last
night at the theatre," he said.

So it had been he--and he had sat there appraising her value like a
murderer!

"Jewelry--?" she faltered.

"You had a thumping big sapphire--wasn't it?--with diamonds round it."

It was her only jewel--Amherst's marriage gift. She would have preferred
a less valuable present, but his mother had persuaded her to accept it,
saying that it was the bride's duty to adorn herself for the bridegroom.

"I will give you nothing--" she was about to exclaim; when suddenly her
eyes fell on the clock. If Amherst had caught the two o'clock express he
would be at the house within the hour; and the only thing that seemed
of consequence now, was that he should not meet Wyant. Supposing she
still found courage to refuse--there was no knowing how long the
humiliating scene might be prolonged: and she must be rid of the
creature at any cost. After all, she seldom wore the sapphire--months
might pass without its absence being noted by Amherst's careless eye;
and if Wyant should pawn it, she might somehow save money to buy it back
before it was missed. She went through these calculations with feverish
rapidity; then she turned again to Wyant.

"You won't come back--ever?"

"I swear I won't," he said.

He moved away toward the window, as if to spare her; and she turned and
slowly left the room.

She never forgot the moments that followe