lder. "Noel! Noel! I--can't!"

His arms clasped her in a moment; he held her close. "Dearest, what is
it? Why can't you?"

She answered him with her face hidden and in a voice so low that he
barely caught the words. "I am--not free!"

"Not free!" Sharply he repeated the phrase. Suspicion, keen-edged as a
rapier, ran swiftly through him. His arms tightened. "Olga, tell me what
you mean! Who is it? Not--not that devil Hunt-Goring!"

She did not answer him, save by her silence and the convulsive shudder
that went through her at his words. But that in itself was answer
enough, and over her head Noel swore a deep and terrible oath.

Only a few yards away the lilting waltz-music was quickening to a
finish. In a few moments more their privacy would be invaded by the
giddy dancers.

"Listen!" said Noel, and his voice fell short and stern. "He shan't have
you! That I swear! It's monstrous--it's unthinkable! Why, he's old
enough to be your father. And he's got the opium-habit. Max told me so.
Olga, I say, haven't you the strength of mind to refuse him? If the
brute pesters you, why don't you tell Nick?"

Slowly Olga raised herself, quitting his support. "I've promised not to
tell anyone," she said dully. "You mustn't know either."

"But, my dear girl, something must be done," he objected. "You can't let
him ride over you roughshod. You don't mean--you can't mean--to let him
marry you?"

"I can't help it," she said.

"Can't help it!" He stared at her. "He really has some hold over you
then? What is it?"

She was silent. The last crashing chords of the first waltz were being
played. Noel got to his feet. His boyish face was set in grim lines.

"Do you want me to go and kill him?" he said.

"No!" She sprang up also, quickened to sudden fear by his words. "You're
not to go near him," she said, "Noel, promise me you won't! Oh, if you
only knew--how much harder--your interference makes things! Don't you
see--I've given him my word to consult no one!" She was panting
uncontrollably; her hands were fast closed upon his arm. "I refused him
once before," she told him feverishly, "and he--he punished me--cruelly.
I can't--I daren't--refuse him again!"

"You'd sooner marry him?" Noel stared at her incredulously.

She flung out her hands with a wide, despairing gesture. "Yes--yes--I
would sooner marry him!"

The music had stopped. There came the sound of approaching voices. Their
privacy was at an end.

Yet for full ten