s swallowed up in the revulsion and
horror that overtook her with the sudden revelation she saw in his
white and frightened face. Leyton's strange inquiry, Rushbrook's cold
composure and scornful acceptance of her own credulousness, came to her
in a flash of shameful intelligence. Somers had lied! The insufferable
meanness of it! A lie, whose very uselessness and ignobility had
defeated its purpose--a lie that implied the basest suspicion of her
own independence and truthfulness--such a lie now stood out as plainly
before her as his guilty face.

"Forgive my speaking so rudely," he said with a forced smile and attempt
to recover his self-control, "but you have ruined me unless you deny
that I told you anything. It was a joke--an extravagance that I had
forgotten; at least, it was a confidence between you and me that you
have foolishly violated. Say that you misunderstood me--that it was a
fancy of your own. Say anything--he trusts you--he'll believe anything
you say."

"He HAS believed me," said Grace, almost fiercely, turning upon him with
the paper that Rushbrook had given her in her outstretched hand. "Read
that!"

He read it. Had he blushed, had he stammered, had he even kept up his
former frantic and pitiable attitude, she might at that supreme moment
have forgiven him. But to her astonishment his face changed, his
handsome brow cleared, his careless, happy smile returned, his graceful
confidence came back--he stood before her the elegant, courtly, and
accomplished gentleman she had known. He returned her the paper, and
advancing with extended hand, said triumphantly:--

"Superb! Splendid! No one but a woman could think of that! And only one
woman achieve it. You have tricked the great Rushbrook. You are indeed
worthy of being a financier's wife!"

"No," she said passionately, tearing up the paper and throwing it at his
feet; "not as YOU understand it--and never YOURS! You have debased and
polluted everything connected with it, as you would have debased and
polluted ME. Out of my presence that you are insulting--out of the room
of the man whose magnanimity you cannot understand!"

The destruction of the guarantee apparently stung him more than the
words that accompanied it. He did not relapse again into his former
shamefaced terror, but as a malignant glitter came into his eyes, he
regained his coolness.

"It may not be so difficult for others to understand, Miss Nevil," he
said, with polished insolence, "