o him that her face had grown
whiter. Her arm remained within his but it clasped him no longer. Her
body seemed to have become limp. Even her voice, firm though it was,
seemed pitched in a different key.

"Listen," she said. "You will have to forget Miss Dalstan. I have made up
my mind what I want in life and I am going to have it. I shall draw my
money to-morrow morning and afterwards I shall come straight to your
rooms. Then we will talk. I want more than just that money. I am lonely.
And do you know, Philip, I believe that I must have cared for you all the
time, and you--you must have cared for me a little or you would never
have done that for my sake. You must and you shall care, Philip, because
our time has come, and I want you, please--shall I have to say it,
dear?--I want you to marry me."

He wrenched himself free from her.

"That is quite out of the question, Beatrice," he declared.

She laughed at him mockingly.

"Oh, don't say that, Philip! You might tempt me to be brutal. You might
tempt me to speak horribly plain words to you."

"Speak them and have done with it," he told her roughly. "I might find a
few, too."

"I am past hurting," she replied, "and I am not in the least afraid of
anything you could say. You robbed me of the man who was bringing me to
America--who would have married me some day, I suppose. Well, you must
pay, do you see, and in my way? I have told you the way I choose."

"You want me to marry you?" he demanded--"simply marry you? You do not
care whether I have any love for you or whether I loathe you now."

"You couldn't loathe me, could you?" she begged. "The thought of those
long days we spent together in our prison house would rise up and forbid
it. Kiss me."

"I will not!"

Her lips sought his, in vain. He pushed her away.

"Don't you understand?" he exclaimed. "There is another woman whom I have
kissed--whom I am longing to kiss now."

"But we are old friends," she pleaded, "and I am lonely. Kiss me how you
like. Don't be foolish."

He kissed her upon the cheek. She pulled down her veil. The cab had
stopped before the door of her hotel.

"You are not to worry any more about ugly things, Philip," she whispered,
holding his hand for a moment as he rang the bell for her. "You are safe,
remember--quite safe. I've come to take care of you. You need it so
badly.... Good night, dear!"

CHAPTER XV

Late though it was when Philip reached his rooms, he found on his wri