tangible, something that exists, something that I can understand. Gratitude? Ha! ha! You make me tired. No, no, my friend; we will confine ourselves to facts and drop all that high-flown rhapsody.”

She lifted her white face for a moment, and her eyes rested upon his with a look of imploring entreaty.

“Is there no alternative?” she gasped.

“None. You must marry me, you must become my[Pg 18] wife at once, or the whole world shall ring with the truth—that you were only Hubert Arleigh’s——”

[Pg 18]

“Stop! For the love of God, do not speak that word. It is false—false—false!”

“Prove it!”

“Alas! I can not, as you know too well. Gilbert Warrington, I offer you all I possess in the world—all my wealth—everything—if you will give me those papers in your possession and let me go free, let me take my child and go away from here, so far that none here will ever learn my whereabouts. Is that not enough to buy your silence?”

“No! a thousand times no! There is not money enough in all Louisiana to purchase my silence. Rosamond Arleigh, I love you, and I mean to make you my wife. I have loved you for years, I have held this secret suspended over your head for years, but now—now—you shall marry me, or the secret shall be made public, and you and yours ruined forever! You will be shunned as a pestilence, and Violet, think of what her fate will be!”

A low groan issued from the woman’s pallid lips, then all was still. The silence grew oppressive.

Gilbert Warrington drew near the bowed figure and touched her lightly upon the arm.

“‘Every man has his price,’ it is said,” he says, slowly. “You know mine. There is no alternative. You will consent, Rosamond?”

No answer. The bowed head is lifted, the wild eyes[Pg 19] are staring straight before them into space, the cold hands twitch convulsively, the white lips quiver; but not a word escapes her, not a moan.

[Pg 19]

“You have heard my proposition,” the smooth voice goes on, lowly; “you must say ‘Yes’ at once, or I shall go down-stairs now and expose your secret to the select society gathered here to do honor to your daughter’s eighteenth birthday. You were scarcely eighteen when this occurred of which 

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