erday
when I came, bringing with me the story of all I had done for you,--yes,
for you,--and was ignominiously refused the privilege of seeing you?"
Rage and jealousy had got the better of him this time. He rose as he
spoke, and looked upon her with such passion kindling in his eyes that
he seemed ready for any desperate act.

"I have thanked you for any services you may have rendered me, Mr.
Bradshaw." Myrtle answered, very calmly, "and I hope you will add one
more to them by sparing me this rude questioning. I wished to treat you
as a friend; I hope you will not render that impossible."

He had recovered himself for one more last effort. "I was impatient:
overlook it, I beg you. I was thinking of all the happiness I have
labored to secure for you, and of the ruin to us both it would be if you
scornfully rejected the love I offer you,--if you refuse to leave me any
hope for the future,--if you insist on throwing yourself away on this
man, so lately pledged to another. I hold the key of all your earthly
fortunes in my hand. My love for you inspired me in all that I have
done, and, now that I come to lay the result of my labors at your feet,
you turn from me, and offer my reward to a stranger. I do not ask you to
say this day that you will be mine,--I would not force your
inclinations,--but I do ask you that you will hold yourself free of all
others, and listen to me as one who may yet be more than a friend. Say
so much as this, Myrtle, and you shall have such a future as you never
dreamed of. Fortune, position, all that this world can give, shall be
yours!"

"Never! never! If you could offer me the whole world, or take away from
me all that the world can give, it would make no difference to me. I
cannot tell what power you hold over me, whether of life and death, or
of wealth and poverty; but after talking to me of love, I should not
have thought you would have wronged me by suggesting any meaner motive.
It is only because we have been on friendly terms so long that I have
listened to you as I have done. You have said more than enough, and I
beg you will allow me to put an end to this interview."

She rose to leave the room. But Murray Bradshaw had gone too far to
control himself,--he listened only to the rage which blinded him.

"Not yet!" he said. "Stay one moment, and you shall know what your pride
and self-will have cost you!"

Myrtle stood, arrested, whether by fear, or curiosity, or the passive
subjection o