"Have you spied upon me, too?"
"You forget the meeting at the Arch."
"No woman will spread the story of a rival's claims!"
There was a pause, then he continued, with deliberate slowness:
"You shall come back with me—my beautiful Hellayne—my wife in name, if not in deed! And you shall submit to my caresses, knowing, as I do, how loathsome they are. And you shall smile—smile—and appear happy—my wife henceforth in name only. And you shall smile no less at what henceforth your lord's pleasure may be with other women—fair as yourself—and you shall grow old and grey, and the thing you call your soul shall die and wither up your beauty—and never a word shall pass your lips anent this chastisement. And at last you shall die—and be laid by—and not a soul shall ever be the wiser for your shame."
Hellayne covered her face with her hands.
"And if I should refuse to accept this fate?"
"Then you shall be flung into a nunnery."
"And if I refuse to become a nun?"
"Then your lover shall pay the price—with his blood instead of yours. Know you the woman he so madly loves?"