e boy and leaning over him, bringing out his
words so that every one seemed to penetrate his heart; "think of it,
to-night a kiss behind a door in front of which her husband was
standing. Danger fascinates her. And just now, a moment before you came,
we agreed----"

"So it was she?" Karl interrupted.

"Oh, yes, it was she," Millar admitted. "I suggested a wild plan, Karl;
almost too daring for the first day of our acquaintance. Her honor,
position, everything depend upon its success. Of course I did not dream
she would carry it out. I suggested it merely to sound the depths of her
passion. But she loved the idea and insisted upon doing it this very
night. If it fails we are lost."

Karl trembled with apprehension for Olga, whom he believed in the
devilish power of this man.

"What is it?" he asked.

"She will be here in one minute, dressed in an opera cloak--and nothing
else. Think of it, Karl; the daring of it. She will walk through the
ballroom on my arm, among all those people, her friends, her husband,
with no one in the secret but we two--and you. Ah, Karl, I told you she
would be mine," Millar concluded with rapturous accents.

With a wild cry Karl sprang at Millar, hurling one word at him:

"Liar!"

"Karl, be careful," Millar protested, avoiding him.

"It's a lie; a damnable, dirty lie!" Karl cried, trying blindly to reach
him, to grasp his throat to throttle him.

Millar deftly avoided him and laughed triumphantly.

"I have trapped you who tried to trap me," he cried. "You love Olga
Hofmann."

"Yes, I love her," Karl cried loudly. "I love her, and yet I will marry
Elsa. Now, I have listened to your infernal lies; I have watched you
gloat over them. Men like you steal a woman's reputation and boast of it
and call it a success. But you shall pay for it, now, this minute, when
I kick you out of the house. Out with you, like a sneak-thief that you
are!"

He advanced determinedly on Millar, who quietly faced him.

"Remember, Karl, that I have the pistol now," he said coolly.

"Out with you, you sneak-thief; I am not afraid of you," Karl cried
again.

He was about to seize Millar by the throat, when he started back in
amazement at what seemed to be the fulfilment of the other's sinister
promise. Olga stepped through the door into the room. She was clothed
from head to foot in a beautiful, shimmering, fur-trimmed cloak.

Above the top button gleamed her bare throat. Her white arms projected
from