nce was
useless, submitted quietly.

"Roger," said Ruth huskily, "you will come home with me?"

In reply I was about to enter the carriage with Wilfred by my side; but
no sooner did she see this than she exclaimed as if in horror,

"Not him, Roger; no, not him."

"Then I will ride on the box by the driver," I said. "I will not let
him go yet."

"But will you be safe?" she said, anxiously.

"Perfectly safe, Ruth," I answered.

Then she allowed the servant to help her into the carriage as if she
were dazed, while I mounted the box with Wilfred.

We were not long in reaching Morton Hall, I realising more clearly each
minute the position in which I was placed and the hopes dearest to my
heart.

The old servant I had seen on my first visit was delighted as well as
relieved at our advent, but looked strangely at Wilfred, and at my
request silently opened the door of a room, and left us together.

I did this because, as I descended from the carriage, Ruth said:

"Say what you must say to him quickly, Roger, I cannot bear for him to
be in the house. I cannot bear to see him again!"

And so he and I stood alone in the room into which we had been ushered,
and in the flickering light I saw that his face was pale as death.

"You have won again," he said between his set teeth.

"Be thankful I have won, Wilfred," I said. "Supposing it had been
otherwise, and you had succeeded in your designs. Would you have been
any happier? Would you not have been haunted with the thought that you
had ruined her life, besides condemning her to the hell of a loveless
marriage?"

"And would I have cared for that?" he retorted, "My chief thought was
to baulk you, to crush you, as the younger brother should crush the
elder, when the elder has been unworthy of his name. To do this I
would suffer hell, here and hereafter; to do this I would allow myself
to be buffeted, scorned, hated; I would be as I have been, the vile
plotter and cunning villain. And why? I hate you, partly because you
have stepped into the place I longed for, but more because my mother
taught me to do so. Ay, and I will hate you, and I will curse you."

"Wilfred," I said, "do not goad me too far. I wish you no harm; nay, I
only wish you good. I have in the past sacrificed much for you; but if
you plot against Ruth again, or if you lift a finger against her, I
shall be obliged to crush you as I would an adder, not because I hate
you, but because I care for