ing up her word. 'I don't admit
that for a moment. You know how we stand to one another and what my
feelings are towards you. It is no use for you to try to ignore them or
me. I won't stand being treated like this. There is no reason why my
advances should be repulsed as though they were an insult.'

"I caught the last words of the lady's reply: '--good reason, and
you know it.'

"It was more than clear to me now that I was to be the witness of a very
hateful piece of business. The man's tone, even more than his words, made
my blood boil, and I began to congratulate myself on being thus
accidentally in a position to protect, if need be, the girl whom this
fellow was evidently bullying. With the utmost care I crept nearer to the
small curtained arch which admitted to the larger room. The pitch
darkness of the little turret chamber in which I stood made me feel quite
safe from observation. And I had no qualms now about eavesdropping; the
situation surely justified it.

"I went forward till I could get a sight round the arch of the two
persons in the room. They were standing near the window at some distance
from me. In the obscurity, not quite as impenetrable as that out of which
I looked, I could distinguish the tall figure of the girl in a dark
ball-dress, and facing her, towards me, the big form of Henshaw."

"You had no idea who the lady was?" Edith Morriston interrupted
him to ask.

"Naturally not the vaguest," Gifford answered. "When I had gone as far
as was safe, I set myself to listen again.

"'I don't know what your game is or whether you think you can play the
fool with me,' Henshaw was saying in an ugly tone. 'But I warn you not to
try it; I am not a man to be fooled. Now let us be friends again,' he
added in a softer tone.

"It seemed as though he put out his hand for a caress, for the girl
started back and I heard her say 'Never!'

"'Folly!' he exclaimed. Then took a step forward. 'You are in love with
another man?' he demanded. I could hear the hiss of the question.

"'If I were I should not tell you,' was the defiant reply in a low voice.

"'You would not?' he snapped viciously. 'Let me tell you this, then. You
shall never marry another man while I live. I hold the bar to that, as
you will find.'

"'You mean to act like a cad?' I heard the girl say.

"'I mean to act,' he retorted, 'like a sensible man who has a fair
advantage and means, in spite of your caprice, to keep it.'

"'Fair?' the gir