not
long satisfy you as an abiding place. I have not forgotten your
girlish taste for pomp, pageant and all manner of excitement; a taste
that has doubtless become fully developed by now. Third, because you
have, at this present moment, a lover whom you prefer above all
others, and to whom you will flee sooner or later."

"Perhaps you can substantiate that statement," sneered Cora.

"Well, not exactly; but I know women. My dear, say what you please to
me, but don't expect to be believed if you will insist upon doing the
devoted wife."

"I insist upon nothing," said Cora, rising, "and I have not time for
many more words. Let us come to the point at once: With my life, after
I left you, you have nothing to do; you know nothing of it now, and
you will learn no more from me. Of you, I know this much. I know that
you clung, after your fashion, to the skirts of your unfortunate wife,
spending her income and making her life miserable. I know that six
years ago you inherited a fortune from a distant relative. I know that
from that time you utterly neglected your wife, who had been an
invalid for years; and that soon after she died, heart-broken and
alone."

Percy turned upon her, and scrutinized her face keenly; then, coming
close to her, said, meaningly: "And then I wonder that you did not
come back to me."

For a moment the woman seemed confused, and off her guard. But she had
not sought an interview with this man without fully reviewing her
ground.

"I had ceased to care for you," she said, lifting her unflinching eyes
to his face; "and I did not need your money. Come, enough of the past;
you have squandered your fortune, and now you want another. You want
to put yourself still more into my power by marrying a third wife--so
be it; I consent."

"Not so fast. You are first to promise me to place in my hands, on my
'marriage morn,' those unpleasant little documents which you hold
against me. In return for which you will receive a sum of money, the
amount of said sum to be hereafter arranged. Then we go our separate
ways."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then, painful as it is, I must do my duty. You are to give me your
answer when I return to Bellair; no time for tricks, mind. If the
answer is no, then I interview Mr. John Arthur."

"And you return?--"

"The day after to-morrow."

"Then you shall have my answer. Until then--"

She swept him a stately courtesy, which he returned with a most
elaborate bow.

Without a