"I feared so," he answers, with an unconscious tone of sadness in his voice. "Yet I wished to see you. There is something I have to tell you." "You can tell me nothing that I wish to hear," she retorts, haughtily. "Let me pass, sir. I refuse to listen!" But the tall, handsome form blocks her way, and shows no signs of yielding. "Stay, one moment, Xenie," he exclaims. "Suppose I tell you that your vengeance is secure after all--that Uncle John's missing will is found at last?" She whirls toward him, her dark eyes blazing with incredulous surprise. "At last!" she says, with a stifled gasp. "At last! And who--who----" "I found it," he answers, not waiting for her to finish the incoherent question. "He had hidden it, I cannot imagine why, in the most unlikely place in the world. By the merest accident I came upon it yesterday. Take it, Xenie. It secures your revenge to you now, beyond the shadow of a doubt." He drew an official-looking document from his breast and placed it in her shaking hand. She holds it in a mechanical grasp, her dark, wondering eyes lifted to his proud, agitated face. "Yes," he repeats, slowly, "your vengeance is now secure. Every penny of my Uncle John's vast wealth is bequeathed to you in the legal document you hold in your hand. I am left utterly penniless!" But instead of the triumphant joy he expects to see in her mobile face, her look of wonder deepens. "_You_ found the will--_you_ brought it to me," she says, with slow gravity. "Who knows of it besides yourself?" "No one except your aunt, Mrs. Egerton," he answers, calmly; "I have told her, and she is very anxious to congratulate you." Her red lips curl with faint scorn. But she does not speak. This sudden turn of fortune's wheel seems to have dazed her. She stands quite still holding the precious paper in her tightly-clasped hand, while her dark eyes fix themselves upon it in a strange, intent fashion. She has lost her revenge, she has lost the world's applause, but this little bit of yellow paper is able to buy it all back for her. It seems too stupendous to believe. "Why have you done this thing?" she asks, rousing herself, and lifting a curious glance to the silent man before her. "I do not understand you," he begins, half-haughtily. "Oh! yes, you do," she interrupts him quickly. "When you found this will, which leaves you penniless, and me, your enemy, triumphant, you must have been tempted to destroy it. You knew that I had resorted to a fraud in order to gain my revenge. How did you conquer the temptation to repay me likewise? Were you nobler than I that you did not burn this paper and keep your uncle's wealth?" "Xenie, if you will answer me one simple question, I will tell you why I beat down the temptation to keep the wealth which has caused us both so many a bitter heart-ache," he said to her, in a grave, sad voice. "I will answer you," she repeated, slowly.