The robe was beautiful, and fitted her voluptuous form to perfection. After it had been duly admired and removed, the enthusiastic young women were horrified to see Julia Webber hold it from her at arms length while she lighted in succession a half dozen waxen matches and applied them in spots to the costly fabric. The velvet writhed and twisted, beneath the flame-like human flesh, whilst almost suffocating fumes pervaded every inch of the apartment. She held it thus in her hands, until it was completely ruined, leaving only enough uninjured, to show the original shape and beauty, then refolding it as best she could, she tied the wrappings again with her own hands and writing in large, clear letters across the package, "The Pledge of a Broken Contract," ordered her maid to return it at once, to Captain Carlisle, Hotel Victoria. Then she dismissed the wondering women and went once more to the room that had become so strangely interesting.
A moment later she stood beside the couch holding in her hand a cluster of delicious grapes, while Stella listened and ate with the expression of bewilderment gradually fading from her features.
"I wish you would tell me of yourself, freely and unreservedly," Julia Webber said, and Stella, realizing at last some degree of truth regarding this woman and her surroundings, was clever enough to know that innocence and helplessness were by far the best weapons with which to fight her cause.
In treachery and deceit, Stella was little versed, but as an intelligent and observing member of society, she knew only too well that they existed, and feeling altogether unequal to such a combat, she chose ignorance as the surest safeguard from further trouble.
It was Julia Webber's request, that she would not ask to leave this particular apartment, that first opened her eyes to the nature of her surroundings. She shuddered involuntarily as the knowledge forced itself upon her, but she noted, sadly, that in spite of that promise, the key was softly turned on the outside whenever her hostess left the room.
After a little thought, Stella concluded to tell her name, and the circumstances of her abduction as nearly as she could recall them, but it was only when she identified her abductor as Maurice Sinclair, and mentioned her relations towards himself and his lovely mother, that Julia Webber's face in any way betrayed her interest in the narrative.
"You say that you reside in this Maurice Sinclair's home," she repeated, excitedly.
"Yes," Stella answered.
"And he will inherit great wealth, unless you stand between him and his mother's affection, I infer," she continued more quietly.
"Ah, I had not thought of that," exclaimed Stella suddenly. "You must be right, that only could have been his motive for this awful deed. But I fear, so great is her love for me, that his plans will fail, unless I am safely restored to her."