“Madame,” he at last said, and speaking with dignified reserve, “I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise at your startling and—I am compelled to say it—heartless proposal. It would be a most unnatural—a most reprehensible proceeding. My whole nature recoils at the mere mention of it, and I can think of but one reason that would seem to make it necessary for you to abandon your child in the way you propose.” The physician paused a moment, as if in doubt as to the propriety of saying more. “Well, and what may that be?” briefly demanded his companion, in a tone that should have warned him not to give expression to his thought. “Perhaps your little one has come into the world unprotected by the tie of wedlock, and therefore you desire to conceal from every one the evidence of——” She checked the words upon his lips with an imperious gesture. A vivid crimson rushed to her brow, suffused her neck, and seemed to extend to the very tips of her fingers; then the color as quickly receded, leaving her patrician face ghastly pale. She threw up her proud head with a movement of exquisite grace: an angry fire leaped into her dusky eyes; an expression of scorn curled her beautiful lips. “How dare you say such a thing to me?” she demanded, in a passionate tone that had a thrill of pain in it as well. “But for your former kindness to me, I would never pardon you! You have a suspicion that I am not a married woman.” “I could think of no other excuse for what you proposed regarding your child,” replied the physician, meeting her flashing glance calmly, and with a note of contempt in his voice, although he half regretted having spoken as he had. He believed even now that she was acting a part. She saw it, and again her face flamed scarlet. Then she drew from the third finger of her left hand a superb solitaire diamond ring, and passed it to him. “Examine that if you please,” she commanded, briefly and icily. He took it, and upon its inner surface found engraved in tiny characters, “_C. to E. Sept._ 10th, 185—. _Omnia Vincit Amor._” It had evidently been given to her in September of the previous year. “An engagement-ring,” he remarked, as he passed it back to her with an air that plainly said: “That proves nothing to your advantage.” Madame bowed and then quietly but proudly drew from the same finger a massive circlet of gold which she also handed to him. A dusky red surged to the physician’s brow as he received it and realized what he had done. He felt as if he had offered the fair woman an unpardonable insult. This ring was marked “_C. S. to E. E., Paris, March 15th, 185—_.” Both circlets proved an honorable engagement and a lawful marriage, the latter occurring some seven months subsequent to the former, and Dr. Turner felt that he had got himself into a very unpleasant predicament.