come to you--for my crown."

His voice sank. He stooped towards her.

But she drew back sharply. "Guy, don't forget--don't forget--I am
married to Burke!" she said, speaking quickly, breathlessly.

His hands tightened upon her. "I am going to forget," he told her
fiercely. "And so are you. You have no love for him. Your
marriage is nothing but an empty bond."

"No--no!" Painfully she broke in upon him. "My marriage is--more
than that. I am his wife--and the keeper of his honour. I am
going back to him--to-morrow."

"You are not! You are not!" Hotly he contradicted her. "By
to-morrow we shall be far away. Listen, Sylvia! I haven't told
you all. I am rich. My luck has turned. You'll hardly believe
it, but it's true. It was I who won the Wilbraham diamond. We've
kept it secret, because I didn't want to be dogged by parasites.
I've thought of you all through. And now--and now--" his voice
vibrated again on that note of triumph--"I've come to take you
away. Mine at last!"

He would have drawn her to him, but she resisted him. She pushed
him from her. For the first time in her life she looked at him
with condemnation in her eyes.

"Is this--true?" Her voice held a throb of anger.

He stared at her, his triumph slowly giving place to a half-formed
doubt. "Of course it's true. I couldn't invent anything so
stupendous as that."

She looked back at him mercilessly. "If it is true, how did you
find the money for the gamble?"

The doubt on his face deepened to something that was almost shame.
"Oh, that!" he said. "I--borrowed that."

"You borrowed it!" She repeated the words without pity. "You
borrowed it from Burke's strong-box. Didn't you?"

The question was keen as the cut of a whip. It demanded an answer.
Almost involuntarily, the answer came.

"Well--yes! But---I hoped to pay it back. I'm going to pay it
back--now."

"Now!" she said, and almost laughed. Was it for this that she had
staked everything--everything she had--and lost? There was bitter
scorn in her next words. "You can pay it back to Donovan Kelly,"
she said. "He has replaced it on your behalf."

"What do you mean?" His hands were clenched. Behind his cloak of
shame a fire was kindling. The glancing lightning seemed reflected
in his eyes.

But Sylvia knew no fear, only an overwhelming contempt. "I mean,"
she said, "that to save you--to leave you a chance of getting back
to solid ground--Donovan and