“Anne,” he said suddenly, “where is your love for me?  I will swear you loved me once.”

“I never loved you,” she answered, her words clear-cut, cold as steel.  “I never loved you.  Once, it is true, I fancied that you were such a man as I could have loved.  But that passed.  I did not know you in those days.  I know you now.”

“And hate me for what you know?” he said.

“No,” she answered.  “I do not even hate you.”

“What then?” he gibed.  “You are—­sorry for me perhaps?”

“No!” Very distinct and steady came her reply.  “I only despise you now.”

“What?” he said.

“I despise you,” she repeated slowly, “knowing what you might be, and knowing—­what you are.”

The words passed out in silence—­a silence so tense that it seemed as if the world itself had stopped.  Through it after many seconds came Nap’s voice, so softly that it scarcely seemed to break it.

“It is not always wise to despise an enemy, Lady Carfax—­especially if you chance to be in that enemy’s power.”

She did not deign to answer; but her gaze did not flinch from his, nor did her pride waver.

He drew something abruptly from his pocket and held it up before her.  “Do you see this?”

She stirred then, ever so slightly, a movement wholly involuntary, instantly checked.  “Are you going to shoot me?” she asked.

“I thought that would make you speak,” he remarked.  “And you still despise me?”

Her breathing had quickened, but her answer was instant; for the first time it held a throb of anger.  “I despise you for a coward.  You are even viler than I thought.”

He returned the weapon to his pocket.  “It is not for you,” he said.  “I am more primitive than that.  It is for the man who stands between us, for the man who thought he could whip Nap Errol—­and live.  I have never gone unarmed since.”

He paused a moment, grimly regarding her.  Then, “There is only one thing I will take in exchange for that man’s life,” he said.  “Only—­one—­thing!”

But she stood like a statue, uttering no word.

A sudden gust of passion swept over him, lashing him to headlong fury.  “And that one thing I mean to have!” he told her violently.  “No power in heaven or hell shall keep you from me.  I tell you”—­his voice rose, and in the darkness those two flames glowed more redly, such flames as had surely never burned before in the face of a man—­“whatever you may say, you are mine, and in your heart you know it.  Sooner or later—­sooner or later—­I will make you own it.”  His voice sank suddenly to a whisper, no longer passionate, only inexpressibly evil.  “Will you despise me then, Queen Anne?  I wonder!—­I wonder!”

She moved at last, raised her hand, stiffly pointed.  “Go!” she said.  “Go!”

Yet for a space he still stood in the doorway, menacing her, a vital figure, lithe, erect, dominant.  The tension was terrible.  It seemed to be strained to snapping point, and yet it held.