she might not fall into bad hands. Anything would
be better than her confinement here, with no sight of the sun, with no
one to speak to, with nothing to do but brood and fight her fancies
and doubts, and listen to that ceaseless, soft, mysterious din. Allie
believed she could not long bear that. Now and then occurred a change in
her mind which frightened her. It was a regurgitation of the old tide of
somber horror which had submerged her after the murder of her mother.

She was working herself into a frenzied state when unexpectedly Durade
came to her room. At first glance she hardly knew him. He looked thin
and worn; his eyes glittered; his hands shook; and the strange radiance
that emanated from him when his passion for gambling had been crowned
with success shone stronger than Allie had ever seen it.

"Allie, the time's come," he said. He seemed to be looking back into the
past.

"What time?" she asked.

"For you to do for me--as your mother did before you."

"I--I--don't understand."

"Make yourself beautiful!"

"Beautiful!... How?" Allie had an inkling of what it meant, but all her
mind repudiated the horrible suggestion.

Durade laughed. He had indeed changed. He seemed a weaker man. Benton
was acting powerfully upon him.

"How little vanity you have!... Allie, you are beautiful now or at any
time. You'll be so when you're old or dead.... I mean for you to show
more of your beauty.... Let down your hair. Braid it a little. Put on a
white waist. Open it at the neck.... You remember how your mother did."

Allie stared at him, slowly paling. She could not speak. It had
come--the crisis that she had dreaded.

"You look like a ghost!" Durade exclaimed. "Like she did, years ago when
I told her--this same thing--the first time!"

"You mean to use me--as you used her?" faltered Allie.

"Yes. But you needn't be afraid or sick. I'll always be with you."

"What am I to do?"

"Be ready in the afternoon when I call you."

"I know now why my mother hated you," burst out Allie. For the first
time she too hated him, and felt the stronger for it.

"She'll pay for that hate, and so will you," he replied, passionately.
His physical action seemed involuntary--a shrinking as if from a stab.
Then followed swift violence. He struck Allie across the mouth with his
open hand, a hard blow, almost knocking her down.

"Don't let me hear that from you again!" he continued, furiously.

With that he left the room, closin