"Your assurance is something refreshing," sneered the elder man. "How do you know that I will sign them?"
"I feel very sure that you will, Mr. Correlli," was the quiet rejoinder; "for, in the event of your refusal, there is an officer in waiting to arrest you upon the two serious charges before mentioned."
The baffled man snarled in impotent rage; but before he could frame a retort, there came a knock on the door.
Roy answered it, and bade the servant without to "show up the gentlemen who were waiting in the office."
Five minutes later they appeared, when Emil Correlli, without a demur, signed the papers which Roy had brought and now read aloud in their presence.
His signature was then duly witnessed by them, after which they withdrew, Mr. Bryant's clerk, who was one of the number, taking the documents with him.
Roy, however, remained behind.
"Mr. Correlli," he said, as soon as the door closed, "I have one more request to make of you, before I leave; it is that you will openly acknowledge as your wife the woman you have wronged, and thus bestow upon your child the name which it is his right to bear."
"I will see them both—"
"Hush!" sternly interrupted Roy, before he could complete his passionate sentence. "I simply wish to give you the opportunity to do what is right, of your own free will. If you refuse, I shall do my utmost to compel you; and, mark my words, it can be done. That woman and her child are justly entitled to your name and support, and they shall have their rights, even though you may never look upon their faces again. I give you just one week to think over the matter. You can leave the country if you choose, and thus escape appearing in court; but you doubtless know what will happen if you do—the case will go by default, and Giulia and Ino will come off victors."