"What do you mean?" Zertho interrupted with a start. This man evidently knew more than he had suspected. "You are not assisting me in the least." But Richards laughed aloud, and with a deprecatory wave of the hand, replied,-- "It's no good to bluff me. I know it is your intention to marry Liane Brooker, whose beauty is so admired everywhere, and who is as good as she's pretty. I happen to know something of her--more, perhaps, than you think. Well, only by my assistance can you obtain her. Therefore, you won't be such an idiot as to quarrel with me." "I do not quarrel," Zertho answered in a much more conciliatory tone. "I only protest against your infernal taunts and insolence." "Then the matter resolves itself into a simple one--a mere question of price." "I refuse to treat with you." "Then you will not marry Liane. She will be spared the misery of becoming Princess d'Auzac." "Misery!" he echoed. "I can give her wealth, position--everything which makes a woman happy." "I doubt whether any woman can be happy with a man whose conscience is overshadowed, like yours," his companion observed. "Why, her face would remind you hourly of that which you must be ever striving to forget." "What does it matter to you?" he snarled. "I shall marry her." "Then before doing so you will pay me for my services. Your stroke is a bold one, Zertho, but remember that you can marry her only through me. It is worth a good sum to obtain such a beautiful wife." "Whatever it may be worth, you'll never get it," d'Auzac declared determinedly. The two men faced each other. "In which case she will be enabled to release herself," observed the inventor of the infallible system. "Who will suffer, then? Why you, yourself." Zertho stood leaning upon the back of the armchair in which he had been sitting. He well knew by this man's attitude that he meant to "squeeze" him. Nevertheless, he treated his remarks with derision, laughing disdainfully. "You appear to fancy that because you are now wealthy no words of mine can injure you," the thin-faced man said. "Well, you are welcome to that opinion. The ostrich buries its head in the sand when pursued. You bury yours in the millions which have unexpectedly come to you." "It is sufficient for you to know that I'll never part with another sou," Zertho answered with impatience. "Very well, my dear friend, we shall see. Of all men you in the past have been among the most discreet, and none have ever accused you of the folly of impatience; but I tell you plainly that you shall never marry Liane Brooker," he said distinctly, without the slightest undue warmth. "I intend to marry her," Zertho answered. "In a month she will be my wife." "You dare not act like that." "But I shall." "Then you defy me? Very good. We now understand one another." "No, I do not defy you," Zertho exclaimed quickly. "But in this matter I shall follow my own inclination entirely. I intend to marry Brooker's daughter."