me is up, my little lady. By
Heaven! you'll repent of this. You are mine, and no man on earth shall
come between us."

"I don't understand you," I muttered. He had spoken in an undertone, and
I could not raise my voice above a whisper, so parched and dry my throat
was.

"Understand?" he said, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I know all about
Dr. Martin Dobree. You understand that well enough. I am here to take
charge of you, to carry you home with me as my wife, and neither man nor
woman can interfere with me in that. It will be best for you to come
with me quietly."

"I will not go with you," I answered, in the same hoarse whisper; "I am
living here in the presbytery, and you cannot force me away. I will not
go."

He laughed a little once more, and looked down upon me contemptuously in
silence, as if there were no notice to be taken of words so foolish.

"Listen to me," I continued. "When I refused to sign away the money my
father left me, it was because I said to myself it was wrong to throw
away his life's toil and skill upon pursuits like yours. He had worked,
and saved, and denied himself for me, not for a man like you. His money
should not be flung away at gambling-tables. But now I know he would
rather a thousand times you had the money and left me free. Take it
then. You shall have it all. We are both poor as it is, but if you will
let me be free of you, you may have it all--all that I can part with."

"I prefer having the money and you," he replied, with his frightful
smile. "Why should I not prize what other people covet? You are my wife;
nothing can set that aside. Your money is mine, and you are mine; why
should I forfeit either?"

"No," I said, growing calmer; "I do not belong to you. No laws on earth
can give you the ownership you claim over me. Richard, you might have
won me, if you had been a good man. But you are evil and selfish, and
you have lost me forever."

"The silly raving of an ignorant girl!" he sneered; "the law will compel
you to return to me. I will take the law into my own hands, and compel
you to go with me at once. If there is no conveyance to be hired in this
confounded hole, we will walk down the road together, like two lovers,
and wait for the omnibus. Come, Olivia."

Our voices had not risen much above their undertones yet, but these last
words he spoke more loudly. Jean opened the door of the sacristy and
looked out, and Pierre skated down to the corner of the transept to s