ion that leaped into
his eyes at the words.

"No, and yes. I found out that she arrived safely in New York, where
she was met by a young lawyer--Royal Bryant by name--who immediately
spirited her away to some place after dodging the policeman I had set
on her track. I surmise that he has put her in the care of some of his
own friends. I went to him and demanded that he tell me where she was,
but I might just as well have tried to extract information from a
stone as from that astute disciple of the law--blast him! He finally
intimated that my room would be better than my company, and that I
might hear from him later on."

"Ah! he has doubtless taken her case in hand--she has chosen him as
her attorney," said Mr. Goddard.

"It looks like it," snapped the young man; "but he will not find it an
easy matter to free her from me; the marriage was too public and too
shrewdly managed to be successfully contested."

"It was the most shameful and dastardly piece of villainy that I ever
heard of," exclaimed Gerald Goddard, indignantly, "and--"

"And you evidently intend to take the girl's part against me," sneered
his companion, his anger blazing forth hotly. "If I remember rightly,
you rather admired her yourself."

"I certainly did; she was one of the purest and sweetest girls I ever
met," was the dignified reply. "Emil, you have not a ghost of a chance
of supporting your claim if the matter comes to trial, and I beg that
you will quietly relinquish it without litigation," he concluded,
appealingly.

"Not if I know myself," was the defiant retort.

"But that farce was no marriage."

"All the requirements of the law were fulfilled, and I fancy that any
one who attempts to prove to the contrary will find himself in deeper
water than will be comfortable, in spite of your assertion that I
'have not a ghost of a chance.'"

"Possibly, but I doubt it. All the same, I warn you, here and now,
Correlli, that I shall use what influence I have toward freeing that
beautiful girl from your power," Mr. Goddard affirmed, with an air of
determination not to be mistaken.

"Do you mean it--you will publicly appear against me if the matter
goes into court?"

"I do."

The young man appeared to be in a white rage for a moment; then,
snapping his fingers defiantly in his companion's face, he cried:

"Do your worst! I do not fear you; you can prove nothing."

"No, I have no absolute proof, but I can at least give the court the
benef