No, no! Come what might, she could not tear herself away from Eugene Mallard.
In the drawer of her writing-desk lay a roll of bills which Eugene had handed her the day before, to purchase new furniture for her suite of rooms.
"Select it the first day you go to the city," he had said.
She had intended purchasing it the following week.
Now she went hurriedly to her desk, took out the roll of bills, and counted them.
There was just a thousand dollars. She drew a great sigh of relief. That would buy Royal Ainsley's eternal silence. Before handing it to him, she would swear him to secrecy forever.
She never knew how she lived through the next day.
There was not a moment that Royal Ainsley's handsome, cruel, sneering face did not appear before her.
How she loathed him! She hated, with fierce, intense hatred, the very sound of his name.
Night came at last.