But
I--" she managed to get out.

Pell saw that she was shrinking away again; she could not bring herself to
do as he willed.

"So!" her husband cried, significantly. Now she realized, in a blinding
flash, the cruel subtlety behind his test of her. Her head went back; she
closed her eyes. And then--how she did it she never knew--she raised her
mouth.

"I don't want to kiss you." It was the refinement of cruelty. "I want _you_
to kiss _me_. Do it!" His hands were behind his back. He stood straight and
stiff as an Indian chief.

He watched her least movement. He put his lips very close to her mouth.
She struggled in that one mad second, and tried to kiss him. She could
not--she could not bring herself to the act.

He laughed sardonically. The devil himself could not have laughed liked
that.

"Some women could have done it," he told her, sternly. "But not you, my
dear...." Fury and sarcasm were in his tone. "So! That's it, is it? And I
stand blindly by while you and he ..."

Utter madness seemed to rush upon him.

Lucia had backed to the table. "No! I can't. You--you brute!"

Pell watched her, steadily. "Do you think I am a fool? Or that you are more
than human?" he cried out.

"I swear to God!" she contradicted him.

"Ha! You've had your turn, my lady! Now, it's mine! And after all I've done
for you, you ungrateful hussy!"

The clock struck three. It seemed an eternity until the little bell ceased.
Her life with him swam before her in that brief period. All she could utter
was:

"What are you going to do?" And she clutched her hands in helplessness,
for she read some sinister purpose in his voice.

"I'm going to do what I once saw another sensible husband do under these
circumstances."

Lucia's face was ashen now. "What is that?"

A second's pause. She hung on his answer.

"Horses don't know who they really belong to. So they are branded. There is
no reason why women equally ignorant shouldn't be similarly treated." Every
word was measured, uttered with fearful distinctness. His hand shot behind
him on the table, where "Red" had left his spurs. Lucia saw the swift
movement.

"No!" she screamed, "Oh, no, Morgan, not that!" Her senses reeled. The
earth crashed beneath her.

But he paid no heed. He seized her fiercely by one arm, reaching far out to
do so, and, gorilla-like, he had her, this weak flower, in his clutches. He
pinioned her deftly, and thrust her lovely body back, until her face looked