With a low cry, Miss Chandler sprung toward them.
"And in the absence of the members of the family, you have been plundering the papers!" she exclaimed, her alarm causing a hoarseness that made her voice sound uncanny.
Before she could reach the chair, Leonie had recovered her powers of action and thought. She flung herself between Miss Chandler and the chair, barring her progress.
"Yes," she cried excitedly, "if you choose to put it so, I have been plundering in the absence of the family! Do you know what I have discovered? That you are even a viler woman than I gave you credit for being. That you have lied to me, and that you have rendered further concealment on my part a sacrifice that I decline to make.
"You knew that the words you said to me the night that I discovered you to be a thief, robbing the man who had been a father to you, were utterly false from beginning to end, and yet you tried to break my heart without a revulsion of conscience.
"Now listen to me, Evelyn Chandler, for it is I who dictate terms this time, and you who must abide by them or take the consequences. I have every proof in my possession that makes me mistress of the situation. I want the engagement between you and Lynde Pyne broken without delay. I want him restored to his rights as the heir of Roger Pyne, and I want you to make good the last cent of the money that you took from Leonard Chandler to buy the silence of your own father!"
A smile that was cruel in its irony played over the face of Miss Chandler as she calmly listened to the girl's words.
"Are you mad?" she asked coldly, "or do you think I am an idiot? It seems that you have thrust yourself into the secrets that were never intended for you to know, but since you have done so, it is useless for me to deny that Lynde Pyne is the rightful heir and——"
"No, he is not! That is only part of your scheme to deceive me, but I tell you that I know the story in its entirety. I, Leonie Pyne, am the rightful heir to that fortune which I have no intention of ever claiming. I have my mother's marriage certificate."
"But she was a wife already, and——"