"Shade of my grandmother! If you don't drop that disagreeable name, I shall expire. Haven't I had enough of her for one day? Alice, I know revenge is sweet, but spare me." "Bother! I must talk about her, else how can we settle anything? Do you suppose I am going to allow that sweet girl to be deceived?" This with mock indignation. "Oh, no; certainly not! Well, if I must, I must. First, then--" "First, what position do you intend to take towards me?" "That depends upon yourself." "On conditions?" "On conditions." "Name them." "I am to be received as an honored guest whenever I shall choose to visit Oakley." "Well." "Next, you are to do all in your power to further my suit with Miss--you know." "That's an easy task." "Lastly, you are to promise me not, now or at any future time, to declare to any one aught you may know that might be to my disadvantage." "That is to say, I am not to tell Ellen Arthur, or others, that you have two wives--" "Softly; one, my dear, _one_. Mrs. Percy Jordan, number one, is dead; you alone are left. You see, Alice, my dear, the thing is reversed. You have two husbands now, while I--" "Will have two wives as soon as you can get them!" "Just so." "And what guarantee have I that you will not betray me to Mr. Arthur?" "The very best in the world; mutual interest." Cora pondered. "I don't see but that you are right," she said, at last. "It certainly will not be to your interest to attempt to annoy me now, but how long is this truce to last?" looking at him keenly. Percy smoked away in tranquil silence. "Of course, I understand what you mean by a marriage with Miss Arthur," scornfully. "How long will it take you to squander her dollars? And after that, what will you do?" "Question for question, fair cross examiner; how long do you intend remaining so quietly here, the bond slave of this idiotic old man? And what will you do when this play is played out?" "Because I ran away from a profligate young husband, who had decoyed me into an illegal marriage--illegal for me, but sufficiently binding to have put you in the penitentiary for a bi--" "Don't say it, my dear; don't. It's an ugly word, and, after all, are we not both in the same boat?" "No," angrily. "Do you think I have been so poorly schooled during these years that you can make me think now that you have any hold upon me? Bah! your case is but a flimsy one. When you deceived me into a marriage with you, you had already another wife. You hid me away in a suburban box of a cottage, fancying I would be content, like a bird in a gilded cage. You never dreamed that meek little _I_ would follow you, and find out from the woman's own lips that she had a prior claim upon you!" "Candidly, I didn't credit you with so much pluck," said Percy, coolly.