with
gathering anger. "If you do this thing I cast you off. I forbid you to
give what is your own to Vincenza Vasari's son."

"You make it hard for me to act if you forbid me," said Dino, rising and
standing before her with a pleading look upon his face. "But I hold to
my intention, mother. I will not touch a penny of this fortune. It shall
be Brian's, or Miss Murray's--never mine."

"The matter is in a lawyer's hands. Your rights will be proved in spite
of you."

"I do not think they will. I hold the proofs in my hand. I can destroy
them every one, if I choose."

"But you will not choose. Besides, these are the copies, not the
originals."

"No, excuse me. I obtained the originals from Mr. Brett. He expects me
to take them back to him to-night." Dino held out a roll of papers.
"They're all here. I will not burn them, mother, if you will send for
Brian back and let him have his share."

"They would be no use if he came back. You must have the whole or
nothing. Let us make a bargain; give up your scheme of entering a
monastery, and then I will consent to some arrangement with Brian about
money matters. But I will never see him!"

Dino shook his head. He turned to the fireplace with the papers in his
hand.

"I withdraw my claims," he said, simply.

Mrs. Luttrell was quivering with suppressed excitement, but she mastered
herself sufficiently to speak with perfect coldness.

"Unless you consent to abandon a monastic life, I would rather that your
claims were given up," she said. "Let Elizabeth Murray keep the
property, and do you and the man Vasari go your separate ways."

"Mother----"

"Call me 'mother' no longer," she said, sternly, "you are no more my son
than he was, if you can leave me, in my loneliness and widowhood, to be
a monk."

"Then--this is the end," said Dino.

With a sudden movement of the hand he placed the roll of papers in the
very centre of the glowing fire. Mrs. Luttrell uttered a faint cry, and
struggled to rise to her feet, but she had not the strength to do so.
Besides, it was too late. With the poker, Dino held down the blazing
mass, until nothing but a charred and blackened ruin remained. Then he
laid down the poker, and faced Mrs. Luttrell with a wavering but
victorious smile.

"It is done," he said, with something of exultation in his tone. "Now I
am free. I have long seen that this was the only thing to do. And now I
can acknowledge that the temptation was very great."

With