“I can’t help it, Louis.  I bear the girl no good-will, as you have known from the first, and you must make up your mind to accept matters as they are.  You are determined to have her and I have given my consent to the marriage from purely selfish motives,” Mrs. Montague returned, in a straightforward, matter-of-fact tone.  “I would never have consented,” she added, with a frown “if I had not feared that there is proof—­besides what we possess—­of Mona Forester’s legal marriage, and that through it we might some time lose our fortune.  I should be in despair to be obliged to give it up—­life without plenty of money is not worth living, and I consider that I was very shrewd and fortunate in getting possession of that certificate and those other things.”

“Did you bring them with you when you left home?”

“No; I never thought of them,” Mrs. Montague responded, with a start and a look of anxiety.  “It is the first time I ever came away from home without them; but after I received that telegram and letter I had plenty on my mind, I assure you—­my chief aim was to get that girl out of New York, and away to some safe place where we could work out our scheme.”

“But you ought never to leave such valuables behind,” said her nephew; “the house might take fire, and they would be all destroyed.”

“That would be but a small loss,” the woman retorted.  “I have thought a hundred times that I would throw them all into the fire, and thus blot out of existence all that remained of the girl I so hated; but whenever I have attempted to do so I have been unaccountably restrained.  But I will do it as soon as we get home again,” she resolutely concluded.

Louis Hamblin’s eyes gleamed with a strange expression at this threat; but he made no reply to it.

“But let us settle this matter of your marriage,” she resumed, after a moment of thought.  “The girl shall marry you—­I have brought her here for that purpose, and if she will not be reasoned into compliance with our wishes, she shall be compelled or tricked into it.  But how, is the question.”

“I will agree to almost anything, so that I get her,” remarked her nephew, with a grim smile.

The clock on the mantel-piece struck two before they separated, but they had decided on their plan of action, and only awaited the coming day to develop it.

Meanwhile strange things had been happening in Mona’s room.

We left her musing over her recent interview with Louis, and deeply absorbed in making plans to obtain possession of the proofs of her mother’s marriage, which he had asserted he could produce.

The more she thought of the matter the more determined she became to accomplish her purpose, and she began to grow very anxious to return to New York to consult with Ray and Mr. Corbin.

“I wonder how much longer Mrs. Montague intends to remain here,” she murmured.  “She said she should return within a fortnight, but nearly that time has expired already.  I cannot understand her object in prolonging her stay, since she was disappointed about coming with the party.  I believe I will ask her to-morrow how soon we are to go back.”