"And when I leave Oakley, what then?" he grunted.
"Then, if you have fulfilled the conditions, I will burn the papers in your presence, and you are free henceforth."
"There is the note," he said, flinging it toward her as soon as written. "After all, I may as well be in your power as in hers," and again he arose to go from the room.
"I am glad you take so sensible a view of it," retorted she, looking up from her perusal of his note. "Good-night, Mr. Percy."
And thus cavalierly dismissed, Mr. Percy bowed, somewhat less gallantly than when entering, and left the room.
"So, that is nipped in the bud," soliloquized Madeline, as she went wearily to her own room once more. "When will this miserable complication unravel itself, or be unraveled?"
Little did she dream how soon she would receive an answer to this question.