't serious anyway. Please don't
bother about that!"

He smiled faintly. "I've got to bother. If you don't improve very
quickly, I shall take you to Brennerstadt to see a decent doctor
there."

"Oh, don't be absurd!" she said, with quick annoyance. "I'm not
going to do anything so silly."

He put his hand on her arm. "Sylvia, I've got something to say to
you," he said.

She made a slight movement as if his touch were unwelcome. "Well?
What is it?" she said.

"Only this." He spoke very steadily, but while he spoke his hand
closed upon her. You've gone your own way so far, and it hasn't
been specially good for you. That's why I'm going to pull you up
now, and make you go mine."

"Make me!" Her eyes flashed sudden fire upon him. She was
overwrought and weary, and he had taken her by surprise, or she
would have dealt with the situation--and with him--far otherwise.
"Make me!" she repeated, and in second, almost before she knew it,
she was up in arms, facing him with open rebellion. "I'll defy you
to do that!" she said.

The moment she had said it, the word still scarcely uttered, she
repented. She had not meant to defy him. The whole thing had come
about so swiftly, so unexpectedly, hardly, she felt, of her own
volition. And now, more than half against her will, she stood
committed to carry through an undertaking for which even at the
outset, she had no heart. For there was no turning back. The
challenge, once uttered, could not be withdrawn. She was no
coward. The idea came to her that if she blenched then she would
for all time forfeit his respect as well as her own.

So she stood her ground, slim and upright, braced to defiance,
though at the back of all her bravery there lurked a sickening fear.

Burke did not speak at once. His look scarcely altered, his hold
upon her remained perfectly steady and temperate. Yet in the pause
the beating of her heart rose between them--a hard, insistent
throbbing like the fleeing feet of a hunted thing.

"You really mean that?" he asked at length.

"Yes." Straight and unhesitating came her answer. It was now or
never, she told herself. But she was trembling, despite her utmost
effort.

He bent a little, looking into her eyes. "You really wish me to
show you who is master?" he said.

She met his look, but her heart was beating wildly, spasmodically.
There was that about him, a ruthlessness, a deadly intention, that
appalled her. The ground see