orld that you would strike,
Braden." She was that sure of him!

"Strike? Good God, why should that have entered your head?"

"One never knows," she said. "I was startled. I was afraid--at first. You
implied a moment ago that I had arranged for this meeting. Surely you
understand that I--"

"My grandfather arranged it," he interrupted. "There's no use beating
about the bush. I told him that I would not believe this thing of you
unless I had it from your own lips. You would not see me. You were not
permitted to see me. I told him that you were being forced into this
horrible marriage, that your mother was afraid to let me have a single
word with you. He laughed at me. He said that you were going into it with
your eyes open, that you were obeying your mother willingly, that you--"

"Pardon me," she interrupted coldly. "Is your grandfather secreted
somewhere near so that he may be able to enjoy the--"

"I don't know, and I don't care. Let him hear if he wants to. Why should
either of us care? He knows all there is to know about you and he
certainly appreciates my position. We may as well speak freely. It will
not make the slightest difference, one way or the other, so far as he is
concerned. He knows perfectly well that you are not marrying him for love,
or respect, or even position. So let's speak plainly. I say that he
arranged this meeting between us. He brought you here, and he sent
upstairs for me to join him in this room. Well, you see he isn't here. We
are quite alone. He is fair to both of us. He is giving me my chance and
he is giving you yours. It only remains for us to settle the matter here
and now. I know all of the details of this disgusting compact. I know that
you are to have two million dollars settled upon you the day you are
married--oh, I know the whole of it! Now, there's just one thing to be
settled between you and me: are you going ahead with it or are you going
to be an honest woman and marry the man you love?"

He did not leave her much to stand upon. She had expected him to go about
it in an entirely different way. She had counted upon an impassioned plea
for himself, not this terse, cold-blooded, almost unemotional summing up
of the situation. For an instant she was at a loss. It was hard to look
into his honest eyes. A queer, unformed doubt began to torment her, a
doubt that grew into a question later on: was he still in love with her?

"And what if I do not care to discuss my private affai