"Listen to me, Mr. Ryder," she said at last, recovering her seat and motioning him into his. "This is a wonderful thing--and a terrible thing. Don't look at me like that! Please, _please_ don't! I tell you I am not the woman you think me." "Do you mean," he said with deliberation, "that you are not the woman I met aboard the _Minnequago_?" "No, no!" "Or you are not the woman I asked to marry me before we landed?" "No, no, Mr. Ryder! I am that woman." "Then why did you say just now you were not?" he demanded with heat. "I treated you fairly. Were you not satisfied? Was the glamor of this," and he indicated the makeup box and her discarded costume in his gesture, "too much for you? Could any man give you more that is worth while in life than I? Are you of so changeable a mind that you did not know what you really wanted? "When I wrote you aboard ship to choose once for all between this beastly Marks' offer of a stage career and a position as my wife----" "What letter? What do you mean?" she cried, darting at him suddenly. "You know what I mean. You answered the letter in person when you met me on the dock." "I received no letter from you, Mr. Ryder." He looked puzzled and hesitated. "Well, what matters it? You met me and said you were willing to marry me----" "I tell you _No_!" she cried. "I did not meet you. I did not say I would marry you. And I did not marry you." "By heaven, woman!" "No, I tell you!" She bore him back into his seat upon the trunk with both hands upon his shoulders. Her face was thrust close to his and she held him by the power of her gaze. But again John Ryder realized that her nearness lacked that thrilling influence upon him which contact with his bride had evolved. "Listen to me," she repeated impressively. "You have been betrayed--fooled. Either you have deceived yourself, or have been deliberately deceived by others who knew well your wealth and power--the man you are. You millionaires are a mark for designing persons, Mr. Ryder, as you should well know. "I cannot understand it all. But this I do know: I did not see you to speak to for all of that last day before the ship docked. I thought you--you had seen the unwisdom of your course in offering marriage to a woman like me." She hesitated and the tears welled to her eyes again, but by sheer force of will she drove them back. "I received no letter from you, Mr. Ryder; none at all, you understand!" "I--I gave it to a steward." "It was not delivered. When we landed I did not see you. Stop! Let me finish. I was one of the last to leave the ship. Mrs. Gurthrie--the lady who sat by my side at the table--you remember? Mrs. Gurthrie was taken ill as we came up the bay. I remained with her after we docked. An ambulance had to be sent for to remove her to her home. I went with her in the ambulance before going to the hotel Mr. Marks selected for me----" "What are you saying?" gasped Ryder, his face like death.