"What was I to do?" he asked. She shook her head. "Could I stand idle and see you drift to destruction?" "I shall not go to destruction," she said, with a troubled look. "You do not know Lord Leycester--you do not know--but we will not speak of that," she broke off, suddenly. "I will go now, please. I am very grateful, and--and--I hope you will forgive all that has passed!" He looked at her. "I will forgive all--_all_," he emphasized, "if you will turn back; if you will go back to your home, and promise that this thing which he has asked you to do shall not come to pass." She turned upon him. "You have no right----" then she stopped, smitten with a sudden fear by the expression of his face. "I cannot do that," she said, in a constrained voice. He closed his hands tightly together. "Do not force me," he said. "You will not force me to compel you?" She looked at him tremblingly. "Force!" "Yes, force! You speak of gratitude; but I do not rely on that. If you were really grateful to me you would go back; but you are not. I cannot trust to gratitude." Then he came closer to her, and his voice dropped. "Stella, I have sworn that this shall not be--that he shall not have you! I cannot break my oath. Do you not understand?" She shook her head. "No! I know that you cannot prevent me." "I can," he said. "You do not understand. I saved the boy, but I can destroy him." She shrank back. "With a word!" he said, almost fiercely, his lips trembling. "One word, and he is destroyed. You doubt? See!" And he drew a paper from his pocket-book. "The crime he committed was forgery--forgery! Here is the proof!" She shrank back still further, and held up her hands as if to shut the paper from her sight. "Do not deceive yourself," he said, in his intense voice; "his safety lies in my hands--I hold the sword. It is for you to say whether I shall let it fall." "Spare him!" she breathed, panting--"spare me!" "I will spare him--I will save both him and you. Stella, say but the word; say to me here, now, 'Jasper, I will marry you,' and he is safe!" With a low cry she sank against the door, and looked at him. "I will not!" she panted, like some wild animal driven to bay. "I will not." His face darkened. "You hate me so much?" She was silent, regarding him with the same fearful, hunted look. "You hate me!" he said, between his teeth. "But even that shall not prevent me from having my way. You will learn to hate me less--in time to love me." She shuddered, and he saw the shudder, and it seemed to lash him into madness. "I say you shall! Such love as mine cannot exist in vain, cannot be repelled; it must, it must win love in return. I will chance it. When you are my wife--do not shrink, mine you must and shall be!--you will grow to a knowledge of the strength of my devotion, and admit that I was justified----" "No, never!" she panted. He drew back, and let his hand fall on the back of the chair. "Is that answer final?" he said hoarsely.