"Mrs. Dunlap," she said, "you certainly are mistress of your profession. You have worked out your evil plot to the last detail, I see. You must have gone to great pains to counterfeit Mr. Keller's hand writing. Perhaps stolen some of his own letters from my handbag to copy while I slept. It is certainly cleverly done. And of course this remarkable interview is a part of the whole scheme. One wonders whether you were cunning enough to concoct it on the spur of the moment, or whether you had it all prepared in reserve, if you found I did not fall for your story at once? Of course I know the daily papers are full of such tales of blackmail and the like. Perhaps if my tastes lay in that direction and I had posted myself better on the ways of such people as you, I might have been saved even the first humiliation of giving way before you and yielding to your influence which I now thoroughly believe to have been hypnotic. "Of course I might have saved your time by saying all this before I heard you, but my mother was so anxious that I should let you speak that I have listened to your remarkable tale with what patience I could summon. But now I think we have had enough of this farce. I wish to distinctly state just now that I believe in Mr. Keller's honor and integrity as entirely as I did before this insane plot was planned; and until I hear from his own lips that he did not intend to marry me that night, and that he is not Mr. Rufus Keller, and never was, I shall not believe one word of this story; and I shall remain as I am now, his promised wife until he comes to claim me." Before this outburst the baffled woman sat silent, dumbfounded. Such beautiful faith in such a worthless man had never come her way. She was not troubled over the insults that had been flung at her. The situation had become too grave to be thinking of self. The question that fairly appalled her was, how was it possible to save this poor blind child from her own folly? Suddenly she resolved to try one more thing. It seemed the last resort. "Miss Sheldon," she said, speaking earnestly and looking straight into the flashing eyes of the angry girl, "will you put this thing to the test? Will you accompany me on the midnight Express to New York where I will take you to call on Mr. Ralph Oliver in his private office, Number — Fifth Avenue, that he may tell you himself that he is the Mr. Keller whom you know so well? I happen to know that he is to be in his office to-morrow morning. Will you go?" What would the girl reply to this challenge? What she did was to rise in utter silence and move swiftly across the room to the door, which she opened, and closed after her with a distinct slam! CHAPTER VII