"Don't you understand that, having put her name to a written contract with me, she would not break that contract, or repudiate it? And don't you see that she has intended, all along, to force me into a position where I would be the one to repudiate its terms? You're a poor judge of character, Melvin, if you don't see that. You have never known Patricia Langdon, if you don't understand her, now. And"—he hesitated an instant—"your association with me has taught you mighty little about my character, if you haven't guessed what I will do—now!"
"What will you do, Roderick? What do you mean?" asked the lawyer, alarmed by the deep intensity with which Duncan spoke those last words.
"I shall go to Montana. I shall start to-night. I shall find Patricia Langdon. I shall live up to the terms of the contract I made with her, and I shall compel her to do the same. I shall make her my wife. I shall bring her back to New York, to her father, to her home, as Mrs. Roderick Duncan. That is what I shall do. That is what I mean."
"God bless you, boy! But—it can't be done."
"It shall be done."
"But, she will never consent to such an arrangement. She is the last woman in the world to drag your name—"
"The last woman; that is it. She is the last of the Langdon's; she shall be the last of the Duncan's, too. She will keep to the letter of her contract, if I force her to it. I know that. And I will force her to it."
"But the man! What will you do with him?"
Duncan stared a moment. Then, he smiled, as he replied:
"After Patricia Langdon has become Patricia Duncan, I will kill him. Good-day, Melvin."