uineas for such as you! You shall have millions. And you will go?"

"Yes," she whispered, "I will go."

He sought to embrace her, but she eluded his grasp. "Not yet--not yet.
You must wait." So great was her disgust that she feared lest she should
break out in rage and denounce him. Following after her scene with
Geoffrey the very intensity of his passion wrought disagreeably upon her
nerves. She felt the irony of fate. Yet the reflection steeled her
purpose and gave her strength to smile and seem to accept his advances.

She placed her hand, glistening with rings, upon his sleeve. "I will
meet you in town to-morrow, anywhere you select."

"No, you must not leave me now."

"It is absolutely necessary. I have my things to get ready."

"My servants will supply all that you need."

"Ah, you do not understand women's needs," she murmured, coquettishly,
and she turned to get into the phaeton, which just then had driven up to
the door. It had been ordered for Jawkins's morning airing, but it
suited her convenience admirably.

He made a movement to follow her, but she turned and spoke to him in
French. "Do you not understand that caution is necessary? We must not be
seen together. I will meet you at noon to-morrow in South Kensington
Gardens. Adieu." She smiled upon him, and her glance had all the
sweetness of that which Vivien bent on Merlin. "To the station!" she
said to the coachman.

It took her some time to collect her thoughts and realize the situation.
The effrontery of Jawkins seemed so daring that she almost laughed
aloud. She had escaped from his clutches for a moment, but it was only a
respite, a breathing spell which would soon be over. It would be
necessary to provide for the morrow. But that reflection disturbed her
little. She was free to pursue the object of her journey and satisfy the
desire for revenge which filled her heart. As the train whirled toward
London she whetted the stiletto of vengeance upon the grindstone of her
wounded feelings. That paper exhibited by Dacre would furnish the needed
proof of conspiracy, and then good-by, Lord Brompton, to your cherished
schemes for fortune. It made her wince to think that she had been
discarded for an awkward hoyden of a girl, her equal in no particular.
So she stigmatized her rival, as she chose to consider Maggie Windsor.
"He loved me in the days of my green maidenhood," she said to herself,
"but now that I am become the most beautiful woman in England