“Use our authority,” he sneered. “I suppose you have been using your infernal temper, woman-like! Where is your tact? A girl of Lady Elaine’s spirit would submit to no living woman--not even you. It appears that I have been depending upon a broken reed!” “What was I to do? I have tried kindness in vain, and I consider that----” “Well, please don’t employ your extraordinary considering powers again,” Rivington interrupted savagely. “My very life depends upon my marriage with Lady Elaine. If the duke discovers that he has been deceived I shall be a titled pauper. I lose both fortunes--while you will find a resting place from your labors in one of her majesty’s prisons. It is a serious offense to purchase thousands of pounds’ worth of jewelry on credit and to pawn it the same day.” Lady Gaynor was deathly pale. “Now,” he continued, a little more calmly, “tell me exactly what has taken place.” “If you persist in your taunts,” she told him, “I may have something to say. As for this girl, I tell you that it is impossible to manage her, and the marriage will have to be forced. Money will do anything. I repeat that I have tried kindness in vain, and because I remonstrated with her this morning she flew into a temper, and declared her intention of quitting the Lodge at once. As her legal guardians we must exercise our authority.” He did not reply immediately, but continued to pace the floor. At last he came to a standstill, and said: “Lady Elaine will not be coerced into anything, and it was a mistake to bring her here at all. Your suggestion of compelling her to suitably respond to the marriage lines must only be adopted as a last desperate resort. I do not even wish to hear you hint at the means to be employed at present, because, independently of what the marriage means to me, I honestly love the earl’s daughter.” Lady Gaynor laughed doubtfully. “Now,” continued Rivington, without deigning to notice the interruption, “for the present I shall assume active control of affairs, and Lady Elaine will be permitted to follow her own devices. I shall even advise her to hasten her departure, and constitute myself her guide and protector. Apparently you and I will be upon very bad terms. In this way I shall enlist her confidence, and also keep her in sight. If my plan fails, well, then we must have recourse to something which requires the nerve of a bad woman to formulate and successfully accomplish.” “Thank you!” said Lady Gaynor. CHAPTER XVI. THE VISCOUNT’S SCHEME. Rivington scribbled the following in his notebook, and for a minute reflected intently: