'And so old Puddicombe has come to the front again,' said he. 'An odd marriage it will be--his with Miss Graham--Brummagem allying itself with the Middle Ages--the counting-house getting a line in Burke's Peerage.' 'There,' said she, handing him the cheque, which he received with a low mocking bow, 'now give me the photo.' 'Thanks, with pleasure. Perhaps you may wish to frame it. Now, listen to me,' he said, through his set teeth, 'if you divulge a word of this interview, or make known the power I have over you by means of this photograph, "then and in that case," as I believe your father's will is phrased, I shall at once introduce it to the British public. I give you this copy for your four hundred pounds, but retain the negative!' Then it was that, as he withdrew, a cry escaped from her overcharged breast--the cry overheard by Allan, and she had only power left her to conceal the odious photo in the breast of her dress, when she fell fainting on the floor, where she was found. To destroy it was one of her first acts, when consciousness returned, and she was alone; but what availed the destruction of this one, when her tormentor possessed the power of producing others without limit? A great horror possessed her now--a dread and gloom came over her, with a painful nervous terror--a kind of hunted emotion--a fear of what might next ensue! Yet she took no one into her confidence, not even Allan--on her part a fatal error. After all her past sweet intercourse with him, their delayed marriage--delayed by the illness incident to Holcroft's outrage--and his too probable speedy departure on foreign service, was she now to harrow him up by a reference to her folly, her petulance, and her silly degrading flirtation with this man, who now proved such a pitiful, such an unfathomable villain! What if Allan should see suddenly that fatal photo in a shop window? This possibility plainly stared her in the face; yet she was silent, and believed that ere this issue came to pass, she was doomed to be tortured and victimised by Holcroft again; and the thought, the fear of this, gave her a kind of fever of the spirit, which made her quite ill, and bewildered her friends. Money had evidently been given by her to Holcroft--no small sum too; and for what purpose? Remembering his threat if she exposed his rascality, her tongue was now tied by a most unwise terror. Ill and harrassed, she remained much in her room and avoided society. Allan, as he said resentfully, failed 'to see the situation,' and in a gust of pique and anger, feeling himself somewhat degraded by Olive's bearing, resigned his extended leave and joined his regiment, as Olive said, resolved to 'sulk in Edinburgh Castle, rather than have an explanation,' rather unreasonably forgetting that she had steadily refused to give one.