Ida sunk on her knees before him.

"Come," he said; "you must go quietly with me."

"Inhuman monster!" moaned Ida.

"Come. This is no time to exchange compliments," he said. "We have parleyed here too long already."

His grasp tightened on the slender wrist, but she did not seem to heed the pain of it.

"I can not, I will not go with you!" she panted.

A taunting laugh answered her. He was dragging her by main force down the path, when the figure of a man suddenly sprung before him.

"You!" cried Royal Ainsley, furiously.

"Yes, it is I!" returned Eugene Mallard, sternly. "I am just in time, it appears, to save my—this lady from you."

At the sight of Eugene, Ida flung up her hands with a wild cry, and sunk at his feet unconscious. Royal Ainsley sprung forward to catch her in his arms, but Eugene dashed up to him.

"Lay one hand on her at your peril!" he commanded.

"And who shall prevent me, when she is my wife?" sneered Royal Ainsley.

"She is not your wife!" cried Eugene Mallard, his face darkening; "and here and now, I propose to avenge the wrongs you have done her. There will be a duel to the death between us! I have two pistols in my pocket, you shall take one and defend yourself, I will use the other."

[249]

Royal Ainsley sprung forward. Quick as a flash he drew something from his vest-pocket. It was a sharp steel dagger which he always carried.

He made a lunge forward, but his foot slipped, and he fell to the earth in mortal pain. The dagger he had intended to plunge into the body of his cousin had been the cause of his own death.

In an instant Eugene was bending over him.

"It is too late!" gasped the miserable man—"it is all over with me now. I am about to pass in my checks. Don't you think so?"

"Yes," said Eugene; "you are mortally wounded, I can see that. Heaven forgive you for the sins you have committed!"

Eugene carried Ida to her own room, thanking Heaven that he had met no one. No one would know of her presence in the grounds.

Then he quickly summoned the servants.

Royal Ainsley, lying there with his face upturned to the sunlight and his hand clutching the fatal dagger, told its own story.

As soon as Ida was able to see him Eugene sent for her to come to the library.

When she received the summons, the poor soul, white as death, fell upon her knees.

"He is going to denounce me for my sin, and for not telling him when I found it out," she said.

Could she face him, now that he knew all?

As she knelt there she caught a glimpse of herself in the great mirror opposite.

Again the girl knocked at the door.

"Tell your master that I will see him to-morrow," she[250] whispered in a strained, strange voice; and the girl went away.

Strange fancies seemed to throng through her brain.

Royal Ainsley was dead, she had heard them say; and she fancied that her child was dead, too.

And now the man she loved had sent for her to turn her from the house, and she would never see him again.

Then she thought of the brook, so deep, so wide, that struggled on to meet the sea.

Yes, she would go there where some of the happiest, ay, and some of the most sorrowful moments of her life had been ............