hall have the benediction of the church, less fortunate girls will envy
me; but I am not a whit better than the poor creature flaunting her
shame on the pavement. Nay, I am worse, for she can plead that love was
the cause of her undoing. Father, I can't, can't go through with it."

She flung herself down in a chair and covered her face with her hands.
The boyish innocence of Sir Charles's face changed suddenly, a wicked
gleam came into his eyes. His friends would have found a difficulty in
recognizing him then.

"Get up," he said sternly. "Get up and come to the window with me. Now,
what do you see in this room?"

"Evidences of wealth that is glittering here," Beatrice cried.
"Shameless extravagance that you can never hope to pay for. Costly
flowers----"

"And everything that makes life worth living. All these things are
necessary to me. They will be with me till the end if you marry Stephen
Richford. Now look outside. Do you see those two men elaborately doing
nothing by the railings opposite. You do? Well, they are watching _me_.
They have been dogging me for three days. And if anything happened now,
a sudden illness on your part, anything to postpone to-morrow's
ceremony, I should pass the next day in jail. You did not think it was
as bad as that, did you?"

The man's face was livid with fury; he had Beatrice's bare arm in a
cruel grip, but she did not notice the pain. Her mental trouble was too
deep for that.

"It's that City Company that I hinted at," Sir Charles went on. "There
was a chance of a fortune there. I recognized that chance, and I became
a director. And there was risk, too. We took our chance, and the chance
failed. We gambled desperately, and again fortune failed us. Certain
people who were against us have made unhappy discoveries. That is why
those men are watching me. But if I can send the chairman a letter
to-morrow assuming innocence and regret and enclosing a cheque for
L5,000 to cover my fees and to recover all the shares I have sold, then
I come out with a higher reputation than ever. I shall shine as the one
honest man in a den of thieves. That cheque and more, Richford has
promised me directly you are his wife. Do you understand, you sullen,
white-faced fool? Do you see the danger? If I thought you were going to
back out of it now, I'd strangle you."

Beatrice felt no fear; she was long past that emotion. Her weary eyes
fell on the banks of red carnations; on the shaded lights and the