elf to a deal involving five millions of the public's money
with Lars Larssen, the shipowner----"

"Larssen!" she exclaimed.

"You know him?"

"No; but he was once pointed out to me at the Academy, the year the
portrait of his little boy was exhibited there. I could feel at once the
tremendous strength of will behind the man. Something beyond the human.
I was fascinated and repelled at the one time. So that is the man
who----"

"Who wants to drag you into a divorce court."

Elaine sat up rigid with shock. "A divorce court! How--why? What
possible----?"

"Larssen doesn't stick at possibilities."

"I realise that, but----"

"I'll not let him drag you into court. Be quite sure in your mind of
that. But listen, Elaine!" Her name came from him unconsciously.
"Listen, I want you to know every detail. It's your right."

Elaine flushed. Her voice held a delicate softness as she answered:
"I'll listen without interruption."

Then Riviere told her of what had happened since the crucial night of
March 14th, omitting nothing that she ought to know, sparing nothing of
himself. She listened quietly to his account of the interview at the Rue
Laffitte when he had, as he thought, made the final settlement with
Larssen; and to the recital of what had occurred from the moment of his
seeing the notice in the _Europe Chronicle_ of the coming flotation of
Hudson Bay Transport, Ltd.

He did not tell her of what he had seen through the lighted window of
Thornton Chase, but passed on to the interview at Larssen's office.

She shuddered as he spoke of the shipowner's brutal insinuations, and
burst out: "It was blackmail."

"Yes, but legalized blackmail."

"You never gave in to him on that ground?"

"Listen further."

Riviere spoke of his wife's unexpected entry into the office at
Leadenhall Street, and the scene that had followed when Olive and
Larssen together had bent their joint wills to the task of forcing him
to his knees. When he concluded on the signature wrung out of the
shipowner at the last moment, Elaine cried her relief:

"Then you're not beaten down! I'm glad--I'm glad!"

On his further conversation with Olive, Riviere touched very briefly,
merely indicating the terms his wife had rigidly demanded.

"And that's how the matter rests at present," he ended bitterly. "I've
taken away your livelihood; and dragged your name into this unsavoury
mire; and there's no finality reached.... But I'll get this tangle
str