hangings: they were playing 'My Queen,'
though she was not conscious of hearing it at the time. In after-time,
however, when that waltz, with the refrain, part dreamy, part
passionate, which even battered brass and iron hammers cannot render
quite commonplace, became popular with street bands and piano-organs,
it was always associated for her with a vague sensation of coming
evil. Caffyn had risen, and stood looking down upon her with a
malignant triumph which made her shudder even then.

'Do you remember,' he said, very clearly and slowly, 'once, when you
had done your best to humiliate me, that I told you I hoped for your
sake I should never have a chance of turning the tables?'

He paused, while she looked up at him with her eyebrows drawn and her
lips slightly parted.

'I think my chance has come,' he continued, seeing that she did not
mean to answer, 'really I do. When I have told you what I am going to
tell you, all that pretty disdain and superiority of yours will vanish
like smoke, and in a minute or two you will be begging my silence at
any price, and you shall accept my terms!'

'I do not think so,' said Mabel, bravely: only her own curiosity and
the suggestion of some hidden power in the other's manner kept her
from refusing to remain there any longer.

'I do,' said Caffyn. 'Ah, Mabel, you are a happy woman, with a husband
who is the ideal of genius and goodness and good looks. What will you
say, I wonder, when I tell you that you owe all this happiness to me?
It's true. I watched the growth of your affection with the deepest
interest, and at the critical moment, when an unexpected obstacle to
your union turned up, it was I who removed it at considerable personal
sacrifice. Aren't you grateful? Well, between ourselves, I could
scarcely expect gratitude.'

'I--I don't understand,' she said.

'I am going to explain,' he rejoined. 'You have been pitying poor
Gilda for throwing herself away on a worthless wretch like me. Keep
your pity, you will want it yourself perhaps! Do you understand now? I
let you marry Mark, because I could think of no revenge so lasting and
so perfect!'

She rose quickly. 'I have heard enough,' she said: 'you must be mad to
dare to talk like this.... Let me go, you hurt me.' He had caught her
arm above her long glove, and held it tight for a moment, while he
bent his face down close to hers, and looked into her eyes with a
cruel light in his own.

'You shall not go till you h