In another moment she would have screamed with terror; but he opened the door, entered, and stood before her.
'I never thought—at least, I was in hope never to see you again,' said Olive, starting up, and recoiling from him.
'Ha—indeed. But in this world are not those always meeting who are better far apart?' was his mocking response.
'What brings you here—what do you want?' asked Olive, gathering courage from desperation, and trembling in her soul lest Allan should return and find this villainous intruder there.
'What do I want! Money. I am, and have been for days, starving.'
'Money I shall not be weak enough to give you again, under any threat or any pressure. The last I gave you cost me dearly,' said Olive, firmly, though terrified to find herself face to face with this would-be assassin again.
'You will not?'
'No.'
'Then give me these jewels—these diamonds,' he said, hoarsely; and, ere she could move or speak, he snatched up the necklace and pendants from a pedestal on which she had placed them, and thrust them into his breast-pocket. 'For a time, now, the work of art I possess shall be withheld from the British public—but for a time only—and in the memory of the time when you loved me, or led me to believe that you did.'
'Insolent—how dare you say so?' she exclaimed.