"No! So surely as we both live he shall not escape. But not in that way shall he be punished."
"Then, how——"
"Not to-night, Mr. Liston; some other time we will talk of this. When did you say the—the wedding was to take place?"
"The first week of December. They will spend the winter South. She is a Southerner by birth, although at present residing with her guardian, Mr. Darcy, in New York. I am to understand, then, you will not prevent this marriage?"
"I will not prevent it. I have had my fool's paradise—so no doubt had Lucy West, why should not Helen Holmes?"
"Very well, then, Miss Bourdon." He spoke in his customary cold, monotonous voice. "My business this evening is almost concluded. At what hour to-morrow will it be most convenient for you to leave?"
"To leave?"
"To return to your friends in Maine. Such were Mr. Thorndyke's orders. As you have no money of your own, I presume you are aware you cannot remain here. Up to the present I am prepared to pay what is due the Misses Waddle—I am to escort you in safety to Portland. After that—'the world is all before you where to choose.' Such are my master's orders."
She rose to her feet, suppressed passion in every line of her white face, in every tone of her voice.
"The coward!" she said, almost in a whisper. "The base, base, base coward! Sir, I will never go home! I will go down to the sea yonder, and make an end of it all, but home again—never!"