de you pay for the
snubbing. I imposed a fine--do you remember?"

"I have loathed you ever since," she broke in.

"Oh, yes," he said. "I know that. That was what started the mischief. I
am so constituted that resistance is but fuel to the flame. In that
respect I believe I am not unique. It is a by no means remarkable trait
of the masculine character, you will find. Well, I made you pay. It was
to be two kisses, was it not? You gave me one, and then for some reason
you fled. That left you in my debt."

"It is a debt I will never pay!" she declared passionately. "I will die
first!"

He laughed. There was something in his eyes--something intolerable--that
made her avert her own in spite of herself. In desperation she glanced
around for Violet.

"She is asleep," said Hunt-Goring.

She turned on him then like a fury. "You mean you have drugged her!" she
cried.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not to that extent. You can wake her if you
wish, but I think you had better hear me out first--for her sake also.
It is better for all parties that we should come to a clear
understanding."

With immense effort she controlled herself. "Very well. What do you wish
me to understand?"

"Simply this," said Hunt-Goring. "I know very well that your engagement
to Wyndham was simply a move in the game, and that you have not the
faintest intention of marrying him. That is so, I think?"

She was silent, taken by surprise.

"I thought so," he continued. "You see, I am not so easy to hoodwink.
And now I am going to act up to my villain's _role_ and break that
engagement of yours--which is no engagement. To put it quite shortly and
comprehensibly--I am going to marry you myself."

She stared at him in gasping astonishment. "You!" she said. "You!"

He laughed into her eyes of horror. "You will soon get used to the
idea," he said. "You see, Wyndham doesn't really want you, and I do.
That is the one extenuating circumstance of my villainy. I want you so
badly that I don't much care what steps I take to get you. And so long
as you continue to hate me as heartily as you do now, just by so much
shall I continue to want you. Is that quite plain?"

She was still staring at him in open repulsion. "And you think I would
marry you?" she said breathlessly. "You think I would marry you?"

"I think you will have to," said Hunt-Goring, with his silky laugh. "I
love you, you see." He added, after a moment, "I shan't be unkind to you
if you behave