“No doubt,” he replies sarcastically.  “I can well fancy the disappointment my absence caused; the blank looks and regretful speeches that marked my defection.  Pshaw—­let you and me at least be honest to each other!  Did Florence, think you, shed tears because of my non-coming?”

This mood of his is so strange to her that, in spite of the natural false smoothness that belongs to her, it renders her dumb.

“Look here,” he goes on savagely, “I have seen enough to-day up in that accursed room above—­that haunted chamber—­to show me our game is not yet won.”

“Our game—­what game?” asks Dora, with a foolish attempt at misconception.

He laughs aloud—­a wild, unpleasant, scornful laugh, that makes her cheek turn pale.  Its mirth, she tells herself, is demoniacal.

“You would get out of it now, would you?” he says.  “It is too late, I tell you.  You have gone some way with me, you must go the rest.  I want your help, and you want mine.  Will you draw back now, when the prize is half won, when a little more labor will place it within your grasp?”

“But there must be no violence,” she gasps; “no attempt at—­”

“What is it you would say?” he interrupts stonily.  “Collect yourself; you surely do not know what you are hinting at.  Violence! what do you mean by that?”

“I hardly know,” she returns, trembling.  “It was your look, your tone, I think, that frightened me.”

“Put your nerves in your pocket for the future,” he exclaims coarsely; “they are not wanted where I am.  Now to business.  You want to marry Sir Adrian, as I understand, whether his desire lies in the same direction or not?”

At this plain speaking the dainty little lady winces openly.

“My own opinion is that his desire does not run in your direction,” continues Arthur remorselessly.  “We both know where his heart would gladly find its home, where he would seek a bride to place here in this grand old castle, but I will frustrate that hope if I die for it.”

He grinds his teeth as he says this, and looks with fierce defiant eyes at the long rows of his ancestors that line the walls.

“She would gladly see her proud fair face looking down upon me from amidst this goodly company,” he goes on, apostrophizing the absent Florence.  “But that shall never be.  I have sworn it; unless—­I am her husband—­unless—­I am her husband!”

More slowly, more thoughtfully he repeats this last phrase, until Dora, affrighted by the sudden change that has disfigured his face, speaks to him to distract his attention.

“You have brought me here to—­” she ventures timidly.

“Ay, to tell you what is on my mind.  I have said you want to marry Adrian; I mean to marry Florence Delmaine.  To-day I disliked certain symptoms I saw, that led me to believe that my own machinations have not been as successful as I could have wished.  Before going in for stronger measures, there is one more card that I will play.  I have written you a note.  Here it is, take it”—­handing her a letter folded in the cocked-hat fashion.