She glanced round the bedroom into which she was shown, recognising that some of the luggage in it must be a woman's, then passed into the sitting-room adjoining. The fire had lately been lit, doubtless with a view to a sudden chilliness foretelling the coming storm, and the flames of its crackling wood danced on the walls, making the two lighted candles on the table unnecessary. Half mechanically she blew them out, and with a sombre, almost stern face, stood watching the blazing sticks. Suddenly a cheerful well-known voice rose below. "The puppy's much better, Mrs. McTavish. What, my wife has come? That's all right." My wife! For an instant Marrion's head whirled. Was she too late? No. Confused memories of what in Scotland constituted an irregular marriage sent a flood of crimson to her face as she realised that Duke had all unwittingly acknowledged her as his "wife" before witnesses. His footsteps coming up the stairs two steps at a time steadied her; but what followed shook her to her very foundations. Unheeding of her feeble "Duke" as he opened the door, he was across the room holding her in his arms and passionately kissing her averted face, her neck, her hair. "This is good," he whispered. "Now for a splendid honeymoon!" For a second she yielded; then she wrenched herself from him and faced him fairly. "You're making a mistake, Captain Muir," she said sharply, "I am only Marrion Paul." She would have liked to add "your friend"; but she dared not. At the moment she knew she was far more than that. "Marmie!" he echoed stupidly. "Marmie!" At first he was too surprised for more; then he drew himself up and stared at her angrily. "What the deuce are you doing here?" he said at last, adding hastily, as possibilities struck him, "Did she send you? Is she ill?" In her long drive the girl had gone over and over the coming interview, settling what she would say, but the sudden solicitude of his tone swept all her preparations away. Did he then really care? If so, nothing but the naked truth would be any use. "No," she replied calmly, only her tightly interlaced fingers showing the tension of her mind and body. "She is quite well. I gave her a double dose of her sleeping drops to prevent her coming. I came instead because I wanted to speak to you." The flickering firelight showed sheer anger on the young man's face--sheer brutal anger. "Because you wanted to take her place, eh?" She gave a little sort of sob. What would she not have given to take it? The very intensity of her desire made her pass the insult by. "It is no use being angry," she said quietly. "I came to try and make you hear reason. You may as well listen. She can't come to-night, and surely, meanwhile, we can sit down and talk it over--as friends!" "We used to be friends, I admit," he replied coldly; "but if you are going to presume on friendship as you appear to have done, the sooner the farce ends the better."