“You could not do it!” he averred, hoarsely. “I can, and will, if you trust me. But--I have my price!” “Your price?” “Of course. It will be a great undertaking, you know; and if I succeed in outwitting Cecil Grant, and making Violet the bride of Harold Castello, you ought not to begrudge me a handsome present.” “I won’t, my dear. Now out with it. It’s that diamond necklace you’ve been badgering me about so long, no doubt.” “It is not the diamond necklace. It’s a liberal check, grandpa. You know I never have any money of my own scarcely, and you do tear around so outrageously about paying my bills!” “And no wonder, you extravagant creature, for you’d ruin me if you had full sway! Well, and how much is it--a thousand dollars?” Amber snapped her fingers disdainfully. “Do you think I’d betray poor dear Violet for so paltry a sum as a thousand dollars?” reproachfully. He stared at her in surprise, and replied, curtly: “I thought you were doing it for revenge because she cheated you out of your lover?” “Yes, but I’m running a great risk, you know, and what if I get punished in my turn? ‘Revenge is a two-edged sword,’ you know, dear grandpapa, so I must have some pay besides the consolation of paying my debt to Cecil and Violet. I will take your check, please, for twenty-five thousand dollars the hour after my fair cousin marries Harold Castello!” “Fiends and furies! Are you crazy, girl?” “Why, grandpapa, certainly not. But you are a millionaire, and what is that small sum to you, when it relieves you of all anxieties, and makes sure the success of your darling wish? Besides, am I not your legal heir, and I should get the money later on, so why not a little sooner?” “Don’t be too sure of that, you minx! I shall probably leave all my money to some charitable institution! Besides, I shall live to be a hundred years old!” So he blustered and stormed, but Amber remained as cool as an iceberg, and would not abate one dollar of her demand, so that in the end he yielded, grumpily, and promised the check. She thanked him with an ardor he could not understand. “You must love money very much,” he said, curiously. “I do,” she admitted, frankly, and added: “Oh, how happy you have made me, for that check shall buy for me the desire of my heart!” “What is it?” he asked; but Amber evaded the question, and proceeded to unfold to him a portion of her plans. They were so clever and so wicked that he was chagrined because they had not occurred to his own mind, so fertile in inventing evil. CHAPTER XIV. “LOVE IS THE SWEETEST THING IN LIFE.” “If I could only see my darling Cecil, for even one short hour!” Violet sighed, day after day. It was so lonely in her chamber, which Judge Camden would not permit her to leave, and where no one was allowed to visit her except Amber and Mrs. Shirley. “I am quite well enough to go down stairs now,” she insisted, impatiently, to Mrs. Shirley every day, but the meek little widow shook her head and sighed: