reasonably. I am well off. I can give you practically
anything you want. Of course you will have to give also; but that goes
without saying. The point is, how soon can we be married?"

"Never!" she cried vehemently. "Never! Never!"

He looked at her, and again her eyes fell; but she continued,
nevertheless, with less of violence but more of force.

"I don't know what you mean by suggesting such a thing. I think you must
be quite mad--as I should be if I took you seriously. I am not going to
marry you, Major Hunt-Goring. I have never liked you, and I never shall.
You force me to speak plainly, and so I am telling you the simple
truth."

"Thank you," said Hunt-Goring. "Well, now, let us see if I can persuade
you to change your mind."

"You will never do that," she said quickly.

He smiled. "I wonder! Anyhow, let me try! It makes no difference to you
that I love you?"

"No," she told him flatly. "None whatever. In fact, I don't believe it."

"I will prove it to you one day," he said. "But let that pass now, since
it has no weight with you. I quite realize that I shall not persuade you
to marry me for your own sake or for mine. But--I think you may be
induced to consider the matter for the sake of--your friend."

"In what way?" Breathlessly she asked the Question. for again it was as
if a warning voice spoke within her, bidding her to go warily.

He paused a moment. Then: "Has it never struck you that there is
something rather--peculiar--about her?" he asked suavely.

She brought her eyes back to his in sharp apprehension. "Peculiar? No,
never! What do you mean?"

"Are you quite sure of that?" he insisted.

She began to falter in spite of herself. "Never, until--until quite
lately. Never till you gave her those--abominable--cigarettes."

"Believe me, there is no harm whatever in those cigarettes," he said. "I
smoke them myself constantly. Try them for yourself if you don't believe
me. They contain a minute quantity of opium, it is true, but only
sufficient to soothe the nerves. No, those cigarettes are not
responsible. That peculiarity which you have recently begun to notice is
due to quite another cause. Surely you must have always known that she
was different from other girls. Have you never thought her excitable,
even unaccountable in some of her actions? Has she never told you of
strange fancies, strange dreams? And her restlessness, her odd whims,
her insatiable craving for morbid horrors, have you neve