But in this fancy he was quite mistaken. His attentions had simply flattered her girlish vanity. Her heart had not been touched.
He waited impatiently for the letter from Miss Errol, planning the kidnaping but it did not come.
The miserable woman, although distracted by fears for her own safety, had not yet brought herself to the point of consenting to become a party to Geraldine's ruin.
Every impulse in her woman's nature cried out against doing such a cruel wrong to the fair young girl she admired so much.
So she delayed replying to his letter, until, angered by her delay, he wrote again:
"You have not replied to my letter. Of course you know the terrible risk you run by your silence. But I will give you one more chance.
"Meet me at the nearest corner just after dark this evening, and I will unfold to you my plans, in which you must co-operate.
C. S."
[CHAPTER XLIX.]
ONLY PRIDE.