"You're a brute!" she said violently.
"Possibly. Did you come to tell me that?"
"I came to see Frank, not you. But as he is not here--and I don't think you are clever enough to deceive me--please send him my message."
"I don't know where he is, Mrs. Anchor." Jarman used the name because he could see that it annoyed her. "But the message?"
"Tell him that if he will promise to marry me I will save his neck. But I must have the promise in writing."
"I'll convey the message if I can," said Eustace, without making any comment, "on one condition."
"What is that?" asked Mrs. Anchor, turning from the mirror, before which she was adjusting her veil.
"You must write a letter to Miss Starth, deploring the death of her brother, and stating that you loved him so much that you wished to marry him."
Fan grew crimson, and her eyes sparkled. "I shall not write such a tissue of lies," she said with a stamp.
Jarman laughed, but not pleasantly. "You have become wonderfully scrupulous all of a sudden," he sneered. "But you intended to marry either Starth or Denham."