"That I have nothing to say about it?"
"Nothing whatever," said Bill sternly. "Not a word."
"Why, you——"
For an instant Mary feared that she was really going to be angry. This was more than she expected, even from Bill Marshall.
"I won't be talked to in that manner!" she exclaimed, stamping a foot "I—I'll marry Mr. Stearns."
Bill sent a dangerous look in the direction of his valet.
"If you want to see him killed, just you try it," he said. "We've had enough nonsense about this thing. There's going to be no more argument."
Even Mary could not but marvel at the change in Bill Marshall. He seemed suddenly to have grown up. He was not talking with the braggadocio of boyhood. Rather, he had become a man who was desperately resolved to have his own way and would not scruple to get it. But her time had not come yet.
"I'll marry Mr. Stearns," she repeated perversely.