"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" I declared. "We have been friends through years, and knowing how pure, how honest, how upright she is, I am ready at this moment to make her my wife." "Remember," she said, warningly, "you have position, while she is a mere shop-assistant, to whom your friends would probably take exception." "It matters not," I exclaimed vehemently. "I love her. Is not that quite sufficient?" "Quite!" she said. Then a silence fell between us. Suddenly she looked up and inquired whether I knew this man who was now her lover. "Only by sight," I answered. "I have no faith in him." "Why?" she inquired eagerly. "Because his face shows him to be cold and crafty, designing and relentless," I answered, recollecting how this woman now before me had once walked with him in the Park, and the curious influence he had apparently held over her. She smiled bitterly, and her eyes for a moment flashed. I saw in them a glance of hatred. "And you still love Muriel?" she inquired quite calmly, repressing in an instant the secret thoughts which were within her, whatever they might have been. "I still love her," I admitted. "She is my life, my soul." She hesitated, undecided whether to proceed. She was wavering. At length, with sudden resolve, she asked-- "And you still have confidence in me?" "In what way?" I inquired, rather surprised. "That I possess a power unknown to others," she answered, bending to me and speaking in a hoarse half-whisper. "That the power of evil is irresistible!" "Certainly!" I answered, glaring at her, so strangely transformed her face appeared. That glitter of hate was again in her eyes, which had fixed themselves upon me, causing me to quiver beneath their deadly gaze. "You believe what I have already confessed to you, here, in this room?" she went on. "You believe that I can work evil at will--an evil which is overwhelming?" "Already I have had optical illustration of your extraordinary powers," I answered, dumbfounded, drawing back with a feeling something akin to terror. "No doubt whatever remains now in my mind. I believe, Aline, that within your human shape there dwells the Spirit of Evil, its hideousness hidden from the world beneath the beauty of your form and face." "Then if you thus believe in me," she murmured, in a soft, crooning voice, as one speaking to a wayward child; "if you thus place your trust implicitly in me, I will give you further proof of my power, I will fulfil the compact made between us. Muriel shall love you?" "And you will use your influence to secure my happiness?" I cried, jumping up enthusiastically. "I will cause her to return to you," the strange woman answered. "The affection she entertains for this man shall wane and fade ere another day has passed. At my will she will hate him, and again love you." "Truly, I believe your power to be irresistible," I observed with bowed head.