“That’s right!” interrupted Tay, viciously. “Turn her loose on Dark. Serve him right.”
“Dark is the best-managed man in England. Fanny’ll not get a chance at him. And she’ll have a husband before the season is over.”
“Good. But are you dead sure you can do it? You failed with me, you know.”
“Because I hated to do it, and because—well, you are you. But Fanny! To-morrow she’ll be sleepy and stupid from the excitement of to-night, and she will eat an enormous lunch, as she always does. She is curious about India. I’ll interest her in that subject at the table and then invite her to my room, and interest her more. She’s never heard of hypnosis. I’ll offer to put her to sleep. She’ll consent, not only because she’s worn out, and yet too excited and disturbed for sleep, but because I choose that she shall. I’ll tell her to fix her eyes on mine, and the moment she does that she’s lost. In just three minutes she’ll be a lump of wax. Now, are you satisfied? Why, if I had the least misgiving, I’d summon Hadji Sadrä.”
Tay laughed. “Oh, Julia! Julia! You’re all right. Now listen to me. To-morrow I shall take out a special license —”
“I’d rather you waited until just before we sail. My mother —”
“Don’t expect me to show any concern for your mother. She’s at the bottom of all this trouble. She set Fanny on me. I had already begun to suspect it before your aunt let it out—I have had more than one scene to-night!—I feel sure she saw us together the day I called at the house; at all events she got on to the facts. I didn’t suspect this earlier because I hadn’t really believed that she had kept Fanny so close—girls are always working on a man’s sympathies. Otherwise I shouldn’t have fallen for it. Now, to continue. I shall marry you to-morrow. You will meet me at Fig Tree Church at seven o’clock. Hardly any one is abroad at that hour. You can keep it from your mother until we are about to sail, if you choose. That is all one to me. But I’ll take no more chances. Now give me your hands and say that nothing on God’s earth shall prevent you from coming to Fig Tree Church to-morrow evening at seven o’clock.”
Julia gave him her hands. “I’ll be there,” she said. “I, too, shall take no more chances.”
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