"How did you get this thousand?" he asked.
Then Ida told him all.
"You were a fool to get rid of the diamonds before you had asked Eugene Mallard for the money and been refused. Go to him and ask him for the money now. He does not know how to refuse a woman, and he will give it to you."
"And if I refuse?" she asked, desperately.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Then you and the man you love will be thrown into prison," Royal declared, "to serve a term of fifteen or twenty years. After that you can not complain as to how I brought up your daughter, if she follows in the footsteps of her mother!"
He could not have used a more conclusive argument.
"Have you no heart, man—no mercy?" cried Ida.
"Come, come, I say, do not be theatrical; the role does not become you! Better be sensible, and consider the proposition I make you."
"I will leave you now," he said; "but I will be here, at this same hour, to-morrow night."