must ask you something."

"Ask me anything," he said, with a smile, "except to leave you."

She thought the phrase so pretty that she could hardly find courage to
put her question. She blushed and stammered, and then, rushing at it
with desperation, she said:

"That money--where did you get it?"

"I will tell you when we are married. It is a secret."

He tried still to smile, but she saw the laughter dying away from his
face.

Her blood turned cold in her veins, but her heart grew stronger, and
she determined to know the worst. She was not a refined or clever
woman; but the depth of her trouble sharpened her wits, and she
instinctively made use of her woman's wiles to extort the truth from
the man who she knew was under the spell of her beauty, whatever else
he was.

"Come here!" she said. Her face was pale, but her lips were smiling.
"Get down there where you were!" she continued, with tender
imperiousness. He obeyed her, hardly daring to trust his senses. "Now
put your hands between my hands," she said, still with that pale,
singular smile, which filled him with unquiet transports, "and tell me
the truth, you bad boy!"

"The truth," with a beating of the heart which made his utterance
thick, "the truth is, that you are the most glorious woman in the
world, and that you will be mine to-morrow."

"Perhaps," she almost whispered. "But you must tell me something else.
I am afraid you are a naughty boy, and that you love me too much. I
once told you I had an enemy, and that I wanted somebody to punish him.
Did you go and punish him for me--tell me that?"

Her voice was soft and low and beguiling. She still smiled on him,
leaving one hand in his, while she raised the forefinger of the other
in coquettish admonition. The ruffian at her feet was inebriated with
her beauty and her seductive playfulness. He thought she had divined
his act--that she considered it a fine and heroic test of love to which
she had subjected him. He did not hesitate an instant, but said:

"Yes, my beauty, and I am ready to do the same for anybody who gives
you a cross look."

Now that she had gained the terrible truth, a sickening physical fear
of the man came over her, and she felt herself growing faint. His voice
sounded weak and distant as he said:

"Now you will go with me, won't you?"

She could make no answer. So he continued:

"Run and get your hat. Nothing else. We can buy all you want. And
hurry. They may come back any m