“For my miserable fortune; and you have won.”

“Yes,” he said, “I have won. I am the conqueror; but Kate, dearest—”

She rose slowly from her seat.

“Will you go on speaking without the mask, Mr Garstang?” she said, coldly; and she heard his teeth grit together, as he literally scowled at her now, with a look full of threats for the future.

“I am your slave, I suppose,” he said, bitterly; but she remained standing.

“I wish to continue talking to Mr Garstang, the lawyer,” she said, coldly. “If this is to continue it is a waste of words.”

He threw himself back in his chair, and she resumed hers.

“Now, sir, you are a solicitor, and learned in these matters; can you draw up some paper which will mean the full surrender of my fortune to you? and this I will sign if you set me at liberty.”

“No,” he said, quietly, “I can not draw up such a paper.”

“Why?”