"He knows me!" she thought, "and he is come to tell me so!"
How he gained admittance matters not; how he bribed a servant, who afterward lost his place for taking the bribe, matters not.
He was there, and in the contemptuous insolence of his smile, in the expression of his face, she read that no evasion would be of service to her. Still she did not lose her self-possession.
"How did you obtain admittance, my lord?" she asked, imperiously.
"Oh, Dora, Dora! I have found you. Did you really think you would deceive me for long? I have found you; and now, if you please, we will discuss matters in a proper business-like form."
CHAPTER LXX.
THE PRICE OF A SECRET.
He went one step nearer to her and looked at her with an evil smile; his heart was full of passion—half intense love, half furious anger.
"You thought to deceive me," he said, and the breath came like hot flame from his lips. "You thought to blind and dupe me, but I know you now—I have known you all along, though I could not believe the evidence of my own senses."
He never forgot the regal grace with which she drew her slight frame to its utmost height, the anger, the haughty pride that flashed from her eyes.