"And you decline this fortune?"
"Emphatically I do!"
Her eyes glittered like those of a tigress.
"Then you intend to leave me to the fate that that cursed fiend, Leonard Chandler, has prepared for me?" she cried hoarsely. "You intend to allow me to be sent to the penitentiary, thinking that will cancel your promise to me, and leave you free to marry the heiress. That is it, is it?"
"You know that it is not!" exclaimed Lynde almost roughly. "I have no more idea of marrying Miss Pyne than I have of marrying Juno. Don't talk so foolishly. I am ready to do anything within the range of human capability to help you."
"But you can do nothing without money—absolutely nothing. You must take that money or you must see me sent to prison."
"Once for all—I will not do it. Now let that settle it forever. Are there any points that you can give me to assist in your defense? I do not ask you whether you are guilty or not. At least, I shall give the benefit of the doubt——"
"No!" she cried shrilly. "You shall not do even that. The proofs are so strong against me, that if my innocence is proven it must be bought. Witnesses must be purchased. There is no other way. I am guilty! I am guilty of all that and more, but if you don't wish the woman whom you have sworn by a solemn oath to make your wife, an ex-convict when that ceremony is performed, you must accept that money and save me. Leonie knows the truth, Ben Mauprat knows it, that woman, Liz, knows, and the letters that Ben had not the sense to destroy, are against me. How can you prove all those things liars without money?"
"And is there not a single circumstance in your favor?"
"Not one. I have grown honest at last in that I can acknowledge it. Lynde, Lynde, listen to me! I have borne it bravely, but I am not brave. I am the greatest coward under God's heaven. Oh, listen to me and save me! I cannot go there to that prison, and yet there is not a point for my defense. He brought me up in luxury and idleness. I knew nothing but wealth and plenty, so that when that horrible man came, what was I to do? He told me that my father was a forger and my mother a thief. He threatened to make those odious facts known unless I furnished him with the money that he demanded. I knew Leonard Chandler so well that I was convinced that to have him hear the story would be but to have him turn eternally against me. He would not give me the money that was required to buy my father's silence, and my father would not remain quiet without. What was I to do? There was but one course left. I learned the lesson that my parents taught. I was the offspring of thieves, why should I be different from them? Now, Lynde, you know the truth. I have tried my best to appear stony, but I am afraid. What am I to do? Oh, my dear, if you leave me to my fate, I am lost indeed! Lynde, promise that you will not! Swear to me that you will save me! Swear it, Lynde, by——"