"Go with you!" she gasped. "Leave him for you?" and she laughed wildly. "I would rather die!"
"Very good. I may take that as your decision? In half an hour I take Blair to his wife; in half an hour I will tell him how he came to lose her, and that it was you—Violet Graham—who tempted and prompted me to carry out the plot which has nearly wrecked his life. And then I leave you to face him."
He took one step from her, but she sprung up and throwing herself at his feet clutched at his arm.
"No, no! Give me time! Wait, Austin! Only wait! I—I did not mean to be hard. I—I—oh, have pity on me!" and she turned her white face up to him. "Have pity on me! I was only a woman, and I—I did love him so! Yes, I know it was I who tempted you, but I did not know that you cared for me as—as you say you do, and—oh, Austin, look at me kneeling to you for more than life—ah, for life itself! Do not betray me! I will do anything——"
"Anything but the one thing I want," he said, coldly. "You would offer me money, anything. Money! If you had all the wealth of the Rothschilds and offered it to me to forego the reward I have worked for, I would say 'no!' No, if I cannot have you, for whom I have plotted and planned, I will at least have revenge. You cannot rob me of that. Let go my hand and leave me free to join the early parted husband and wife."
"No!" she wailed, clinging to him. "Stay, Austin, I will—I will consent!"
He stooped down and looked at her face.
"Say that again," he said, eagerly. "You will consent? You will go with me?"
She rose, and with both hands pushed her disordered hair from her white face. Then, looking at him steadily:
"Yes, I will go with you."