CHAPTER L.

Eugene Mallard, looking down at the lovely, terrified face, wondered what there could be to frighten her so.

He was intending to do a kind action. That she should take the matter in this fashion rather surprised him. He told himself that he could not understand women and their ways.

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"My reason for coming to this conclusion," he said, "is that I am intending to take a trip through the country, and desire that you shall accompany me, Ida. We could not go as we are now, and lead the same life as we are living under this roof," he added, as she did not appear to understand him. "You understand what I mean?" he asked.

She answered "Yes," though he doubted very much if she really did comprehend his words.

"That will be a fortnight from now. It will give you plenty of time to think the matter over."

With these words he turned and left her.

She sank down into a garden-seat near by, her heart in a tumult. The sheltered spot in which she sat was free from observation. The tall, flowering branches screened her.

During the days that followed, Eugene Mallard watched Ida sharply. If the girl loved him as well as she said she did, how strange it was that she was unwilling to come to him.

One day, while they were at the breakfast-table, the servant brought in the morning's mail.

"Here is a letter for you, Ida," said Eugene, handing her a square white envelope.

One glance at it, and her soul seemed to turn sick within her. It was from Royal Ainsley!

What had he to say to her? When he left her he promised that she should never see his face again, that he would never cross her path.

What did this communication mean?

Breakfast was over at last, and she hastened to the morning-room, where she could read her letter without being observed.

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         "My little Wife.—I am running in hard luck after all. I invested all the money you were so generous as to give me, and lost every cent of it. An open confession is good for the soul. Having told you the truth, I feel better. I will need just the same amount of money to float me, and you must raise it for me somehow. I use the word must to duly impress it upon you. I will be at the same place where I met you last, on the evening of the fourteenth. That will be just ten days from the time you receive this letter. Do not fail me, Ida, or I might be tempted to wreak vengeance upon my amiable cousin, fascinating Eugene.

                "Yours in haste, and with much love,

    "Royal."

She flung the letter from her as though it were a scorpion. A look of terror came over her face, her head throbbed, and her brain whirled. Oh, Heaven! the torture of it!

What if he kept this up? It would not be long before she would be driven to madness.

"My little wife!" How the words galled her; they almost seemed to take her life away.

"He will torture me to madness," she thought, with the agony of despair.

How was she to raise the money to appease the man who was her relentless foe?

Then she thought of her diamonds. Among the gifts which she had received from Eugene was a diamond necklace. This he had inherited from his uncle.

"The setting is very old," he had said, "because the necklace has been worn by the ladies of our family for[213] generations. The stones, however, are remarkably white and brilliant. They are among the finest in this country, and worth a fortune in themselves."

She had often looked at them as they lay in their rich purple-velvet case.

"I—I could raise the money on them," she thought, with a little sob.

But she did not know it was to end in a tragedy.