But he faltered in a dazed voice:
"That is impossible! She is dead!"
"You can not deceive me like that, Ralph Chainey!" cried Kathleen, in tempestuous anger. Her eyes flashed lightning on her recreant lover, and she continued, bitterly: "Your wife came to me that night in the station and told me all. She—she took me away."
"What was she like?" demanded the young man, hoarsely. He seemed dazed by sudden misery.
"She was a beautiful blonde with a haughty manner," answered Kathleen; and he groaned as if there could be no longer any hope.
"I have been duped, deceived! I believed that Fedora was dead long ago," he said, angrily. Then his voice grew softer. "Kathleen, will you let me explain it all?" he pleaded, humbly.
But in the heart of the beautiful, passionate young girl there had suddenly leaped into life the devouring flame of jealousy—jealousy and hate for the woman who had thrust her rival into the pit of a black despair. And he had deceived her. It seemed to her she must go mad with her wrongs. In this moment she hated her lover.
She turned on him with a tigerish glare in her splendid eyes.
"I will hear nothing!" she said, bitterly. "You will never have the chance to deceive me again!" and she rushed angrily from the room.