“Would it cause your failure?”

“Yes, yes, indeed.  A man may be worth a million but if he can’t get hold of ready money at the moment it is needed, everything may be swept away.  Oh, Madge, this is cruel I With just a little more time I could be safe and rich.”

“Why have you not told us this?”

“Because I wouldn’t touch your money and Mary’s under any circumstances, and I know that you both would have given me no peace, through trying to persuade me to borrow from you.”

“That’s just like you, Henry.  How much do you owe Mr. Arnault?”

“Madge, I’m not going to borrow your money.”

“Of course not, Henry.  Please tell me.”

“You will take no action without my consent?”

“Certainly not.”

“Well, the paltry sum of thirty thousand, if demanded to-morrow, may involve the loss of my fortune.  Of course if I could not pay this at once all the rest would be down on me.  How in the world did you gain any knowledge of this affair?”

“Thank God, and take courage.  I believe good is going to come out of this evil, and I believe you will think so too when you have heard my story;” and she told him everything.

“And Graydon has, to all intents and purposes, engaged himself to this—­speculator,” said Mr. Muir, grinding his teeth.  “He’s no brother of mine if he does not break with her; and, as it is, I feel as if I could never trust him with my affairs again.”

Henry Muir was a man not easily moved, but now his concentrated passion was terrible to witness.  His hands worked convulsively; his respiration was quick and irregular.  His business and his commercial standing were his idols, and to think that a selfish, scheming girl had caused the jeopardy of both to further her own petty ambition, and that his brother should be one of her tools, enraged him beyond measure.

“Now,” he hissed, “I understand why that plausible scamp offered to lend me money.  He and his confederate Wildmere have been watching and biding their time.  I had to be ruined in order to bring that speculator’s daughter to a decision, and Graydon has been doing his level best to further these schemes.”

“Henry, Henry, do be calm.  You are not ruined, and shall not be.”

“It’s no use, Madge; I’m foully caught in their devilish toils.”

Madge grasped his arm with a force that compelled his attention.

“Henry Muir,” she said, in low and almost stern tones, “you shall listen to me.  Ignorant girl as I am, I know better, and I demand that you meet this emergency, not in impotent anger, but with your whole manhood.  I demand it for the sake of my sister and your children, for your own sake and Graydon’s.  You explained to me before we left town that I had sixty thousand dollars in United States bonds, first mortgage, and other good securities.  You also explained that by the provisions of my father’s will I had control of this money after I was eighteen.  You have been so scrupulous that you have not even thought of asking for the use of it, but I demand of you, as an honest man, what right have you to prevent me from doing what I please with it?”