thened the bonds between them. Of
late, she had been conscious that her influence was becoming less
potent, but she had not connected this fact with the advent of Mrs.
MacGregor. The first indication that Elijah's actions were not as wholly
in her keeping as she had assumed was her suspicion of his transaction
with the Pacific Bank. This had startled her, but to a certain extent
she had glossed it over.

When she learned, not through Elijah, but through the published fact, of
Elijah's mortgage to Mellin, the veil of his influence was thinned. It
had startled her, shocked her, but it had strengthened her determination
to make the venture a success, even at the price of an open rupture when
her strength would be pitted against Elijah's. She had no fear for
results; Elijah had placed too many weapons in her hands which she could
use against him. She would compel him, if her influence failed. If
Elijah should force her to go to Seymour or Ralph, she was ready to take
any consequences they might thrust upon her.

When she had learned, not by Elijah's voluntary confession, but by the
confession which she had forced from him, that he had converted the
company's money to his own use, and had in reality made her a party to
it, the shock impelled her to open rupture and at once. Then came the
reaction to pity for the strained, agonized face that pleaded more
strongly for mercy than his words. Her thoughts were not deliberately
logical, but vibrating from point to point.

Another swing of her mental pendulum and the confession of his guilty
love came back to her with crushing, humiliating force. She could not
forget the shame of it. Even to this day the pain was not lulled. But in
the first withering humiliation, when the last remnant of the veil of
her illusion had been torn away, the sense of self-preservation had been
strong within her. The open rupture had come. From now on she must fight
Elijah and alone, fight for her honor and his redemption if possible. In
the days that followed she had forgiven Elijah, but she could not
forgive herself without atonement. The forgiveness had not drawn her to
Elijah, it had put him farther away. She forgave him in justice, for she
felt that in some way, she did not see why, she could not reason why,
but in some way, she had opened the road that had led to his
declaration. Personalities were at an end between them; she had a right
to this much; but in the Pico ranch transaction, the end wa