'How can one reply to such insinuations?' asked Armorel, with flaming face. 'And so you followed me about in order to be able to say that I encouraged you! What a man! What a man! You have taught me to understand, now, why one man may sometimes take a stick and beat another. If I were a man, at this moment, I would beat you with a stick. No other treatment is fit for such a man. I to encourage you!--when for a month and more I have known what an Impostor and Pretender you are! You dare to say that I have encouraged you!--you--the robber of other men's name and fame!' 'Well, if you come to that, I do dare to say as much. Come, Miss Armorel Rosevean. I certainly do dare to say as much.' She turned with a gesture of impatience. 'I have said what I came to say. I will go.' 'Stop a moment!' said Alec Feilding. 'Is it not rather a bold proceeding for a beautiful girl like you, a day or two after you have refused a man, to visit him alone at his studio? Is it altogether the way to let the world distinctly understand that there never has been anything between us, and that it is all over?' 'I am less afraid of the world than you think. My world is my very little circle of friends. I am very much afraid of what they think. But it is on their account, and with their knowledge, that I am here.' 'Alone and unprotected?' 'Alone, it is true. I can always protect myself.' 'Indeed!' He turned an ugly--a villanous--face towards her. 'We shall see! You come here with your charges and your fine phrases. We shall see!' He had been standing all this time before his study table. He now stepped quickly to the door. The key was in the lock. He turned it, drew it out, and dropped it in his pocket. [Illustration: _'You have had your innings, and I am going to have mine.'_]