ndlingen and
his league, but, alone, she was a stormy petrel flapping its
insignificant pinions in the face of the God of Storms. Felix refused to
be cheated by her and she was lost. But the criminal hates to stand
alone in the dock; she wished to be terribly avenged because he was so
great and so implacable. She would show that she could be extreme, too;
if she were not encouraged to love, she would hate.

"Oh, you pitiless one, because you have right on your side and your
conscience," she screamed; "I will drag you down with me into curses and
blasphemies, and others as well! whoever you hold dear shall perish with
us!"

"My father was threatened in the same way," retorted Clemenceau. "He had
not the patience I enjoy. Had he but waited a little, the viper would
have died in her own venomous slime!"

"Then you will not kill me as your murderer did my aunt?"

"No! you have wrecked my happiness, my home, my private life, but I
forgive you, and that is your punishment. You have cast your wicked,
unholy lures about my adopted son, Antonino, but I overlook this because
he will repulse you and, that will be an augmentation of your
punishment. You threaten Rebecca Daniels, but such are protected by the
great Giver of good and, that is again an augmentation of your
punishment. No, I will not hurt you--I would not kill one to whom long
life--as it was to your witch grandmother, embitters every fraction of
time. Live! and, remember, if you are here when I return, that our paths
diverge forever here and beyond the earth!"

She had sunk in a heap on the tiger-skin rug and her hair, loosened by
accident or perhaps by design, streamed in a sheet of graven gold over
her faultless shoulders. Through this shimmering net, her tears flowed,
detached like strung diamonds scattered from the thread. But her weeping
and her attitude were thrown away, for she heard his step as regular as
a soldier's, leaving the room, crossing the vestibule and taking him out
to where the carriage wheels ground the gravel. Von Sendlingen had gone;
the Daniels were descending the stairs; even the servants gave no sign
of life. Already the doomed house began to sound with those dull echoes
when spectres promenade where human tenants have dwelt. Under ordinary
conditions, her place was to speed the parting guests, but her farewell
to Rebecca had expressed her sentiments, and she dared not risk another
contest of wits with the Hebrew.

She heard the horse'