"Yes, must not be. You must give them up--the idea and the girl. What! You, who contrive the father's dishonor, would aspire to the daughter's hand? It is not equable. Love her honorably, or not at all. The course you are following is base and wholly unworthy of you." He dropped the arm abruptly and strode across the room, stopping by a window. He did not wish her to see his face at that particular instant. Some men would have demanded indignantly to know how she had learned these things; not so the count. "There is time to retrieve. Go to the colonel frankly, pay his debts out of your own pockets, then tell the girl that you love her. Before you tell her, her father will have acquainted her with his sin and your generosity. She will marry you out of gratitude." Karloff spun on his heels. His expression was wholly new. His eyes were burning; he stretched and crumpled his gloves. "Yes, you are right, you are right! I have been trying to convince myself that I was a machine where the father was concerned and wholly a man in regard to the girl. You have put it before me in a bold manner. Good God, yes! I find that I am wholly a man. How smoothly all this would have gone to the end had she not crossed my path! I _am_ base, I, who have always considered myself an honorable man. And now it is too late, too late!" "Too late? What do you mean? Have you dared to ask her to be your wife?" Had Karloff held her arm at this moment, he would have comprehended many things. "No, no! My word has gone forth to my government; there is a wall behind me, and I can not go back. To stop means worse than death. My property will be confiscated and my name obliterated, my body rot slowly in the frozen north. Oh, I know my country; one does not gain her gratitude by failure. I must have those plans, and nowhere could I obtain such perfect ones." "Then you will give her up?" There was a broken note. The count smiled. To her it was a smile scarce less than a snarl. "Give her up? Yes, as a mother gives up her child, as a lioness her cub. She _has_ refused me, but nevertheless she shall be my wife. Oh, I am well-versed in human nature. She loves her father, and I know what sacrifices she would make to save his honor. To-night!--" But his lips suddenly closed. "Well, to-night? Why do you not go on?" Mrs. Chadwick was pale. Her gloved hands were clenched. A spasm of some sort seemed to hold her in its shaking grasp. "Nothing, nothing! In heaven's name, why have you stirred me so?" he cried. "Supposing, after all, I loved you?" He retreated. "Madam, your suppositions are becoming intolerable and impossible." "Nothing is impossible. Supposing I loved you as violently and passionately as you love this girl?" "Madam,"--hastily and with gentleness, "do not say anything which may cause me to blush for you; say nothing you may regret to-morrow."