n his face, but that he did not doubt you would
think better of it when you had heard his message. Therefore, he said,
he should call again. That, Lady Ongar, was the whole of it."

"Shall I tell you what his intention was, Harry?" Again her face became
red as she asked this question; but the color which now came to her
cheeks was rather that of shame than of anger.

"What was his intention?"

"To make you believe that I am in his power; to make you think that he
has been my lover; to lower me in your eyes, so that you might believe
all that others have believed--all that Hugh Clavering has pretended to
believe. That has been his object, Harry, and perhaps you will tell me
what success he has had."

"Lady Ongar!"

"You know the old story, that the drop which is ever dropping will wear
the stone. And after all why should your faith in me be as hard even as
a stone?"

"Do you believe that what he said had any such effect?"

"It is very hard to look into another person's heart; and the dearer and
nearer that heart is to your own, the greater, I think, is the
difficulty. I know that man's heart--what he calls his heart--but I
don't know yours."

For a moment or two Clavering made no answer, and then, when he did
speak, he went back from himself to the count.

"If what you surmise of him be true, he must be a very devil. He cannot
be a man--"

"Man or devil, what matters which he be? Which is the worst, Harry, and
what is the difference? The Fausts of this day want no Mephistopheles to
teach them guile or to harden their hearts."

"I do not believe that there are such men. There may be one."

"One, Harry! What was Lord Ongar? What is your cousin Hugh? What is this
Count Pateroff? Are they not all of the same nature--hard as stone,
desirous simply of indulging their own appetites, utterly without one
generous feeling, incapable even of the idea of caring for any one? Is
it not so? In truth, this count is the best of the three I have named.
With him a woman would stand a better chance than with either of the
others."

"Nevertheless, if that was his motive, he is a devil."

"He shall be a devil if you say so. He shall be anything you please, so
long as he has not made you think evil of me."

"No, he has not done that."

"Then I don't care what he has done, or what he may do. You would not
have me see him, would you?" This she asked with a sudden energy,
throwing herself forward from her seat with her elbows